
Ino 



3V:fY»*- 






FGT!DS.I-MWAKri ^EULBERT.N.Y. 



BRYANT,^^"HIS FRIENDS: 

SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE 
KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS. 



Me thinketh it accordaunt to resoun 

To telle yaw al the condlcioun 

Of eche of hem so as if semede me. 

And whiche they weren, and of what degre ; 

And eek in what arraie that they were inne. 

— Geoffrey Chaucer. 



By JAMES GRANT WILSON, 

AUTHOR OF "POETS AND POETRY OF SCOTLAND"; "LIFE AND 
LETTERS C-F FITZ-GREENE HALLECK," ETC. 



f*i 1 



NEIV-YORK: 

FORDS, HOWARD, &-■ HULBERT. 
1886. 






Copyright, 1885, by 
FoKDs, Howard, & Hulbert. 



When a man sits down to write a history, 
though it be hut the history of Jack Hichathrift 
or Tom Thumb, he knows no more than his heel 
what lets and confounded hindrances he is to 
meet with in his way. — Lawren«e Sterne. 

That which a man saith well is not to be re- 
jected because he hath some errors. No man, no 
hook, is void of imperfections. And therefore, 
reprehend who will in God's name, that is, with 
sweetness and without reproach. — J®hn C®well. 



I 



PREFACE. 



The present volume might perhaps properly be 
called " Some Literary Recollections," for it has been 
the writer's peculiar privilege to have enjoyed more 
or less intimacy with all the " Old Guard " of Ameri- 
can authors mentioned in the following pages, ex- 
cepting only Joseph Rodman Drake, and with most of 
those introduced in the concluding chapter on " Knick- 
erbocker Literature." All but one of these have 
joined Cooper and Irving and Bryant, having deserted 
the ranks of those De Quincey described as " the not 
inconsiderable class of men who have not the advan- 
tage of being dead." 

There is a natural tendency among biographers to 
contract what Lord Macaulay sneeringly designates 
"the disease of admiration." This the author has 
endeavored to avoid in the brief notices of Bryant and 
his brilliant Knickerbocker contemporaries. 

Madame de Stael used to say that the highest hap- 
piness she had experienced was derived from her con- 
versations and correspondence with great and gifted 



4 PREFACE. 

men. The writer is fully disposed to share this be- 
lief, and he deems it among the happiest circum- 
stances of his life, that he has had the good fortune to 
enjoy the friendship of so many literary men, 

" On Fame's eternal) bead-roll worthie to be fyled." 

If he has in any instance appeared to give too much 
prominence to himself, some apology may possibly be 
found in the fact that, relating occurrences or conver- 
sations in which he bore a part, it was unavoidable, 
and scarcely less so in making use of the epistles of 
his gifted correspondents. Should the well-read meet 
with many familiar facts in " Bryant and His Friends," 
still, in the words of the old scholar, " the unlearned 
will thank me for informing, and the learned will for- 
give me for reminding them" of interesting matters 
they may have met with before. 

To the brief biography of William Cullen Bryant, 
originally prepared for the Memorial Edition of his 
popular " Library of Poetry and Song," a chapter has 
been added, and also an unpublished poem ; while to 
the monograph on Drake an interesting anonymous 
communication has been appended since its first ap- 
pearance in Harper's Magazine. The papers on 
Paulding and Dana, originally contributed to Scribner's 
Motiihfy, hsiVQ been greatly extended by extracts culled 
from a goodly sheaf of letters, addressed among others 
to the author, by those literary pioneers. 



PREFA CE. 5 

For the use in this work of the fine steel portrait of 
James K. Paulding the writer desires on behalf of his 
publishers to return their thanks to his son and biog- 
rapher, William Irving Paulding; and also to Eger- 
ton L. Wiiithrop for the loan of his private plate of 
Fitz-Greene Halleck, engraved for his father, the late 
Benjamin R. Winthrop. On his own behalf the 
author wishes to express his grateful acknowledg- 
ments to Miss Henry for kindly placing at his disposal 
the series of letters addressed to her father, the Rev. 
Dr. C. S. Henry, by Richard H. Dana, between the 
years 1832 and 1878; and to add, in conclusion, that 
very many communications and poems contained in 
the following pages now appear in print for the first 
time. Of these may be especially mentioned the lines 
on " Abelard and Heloise," appearing in fac-simile of 
Drake's manuscript ; while the writing of the vener- 
able Dana is shown in his transcription of "The Little 
Beach Bird," copied for the author, as he says, " by 
a more willing than able old hand " in his ninetieth 
year. 

Lenox Hill, New York, 
September, 1885. 



DEDICATED TO 
Mrs. ROBERT L. STUART. 

BY HER FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878), .... 11 

JAMES K. PAULDING (1778-1860), 129 

WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) iS7 

RICHARD HENRY DANA (1787-1879), 179 

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851) 230 

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK (1790-1867), 245 

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE (1795-1820) 280 

NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS (1806-1867) 312 

EDGAR A. POE (1809-1849), 334 

BAYARD TAYLOR (1825-1878), 347 

KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE, 376 

Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842), 377 ; Gulian C. Verplanck 
(1786-1870), 383 ; James A. Hillhouse (1789-1841), 387 ; John 
W. Francis (17S9-1861), 388 ; John Howard Payne (1791- 
1852), 389 ; William L. Stone (1792-1844), 393 ; Charles P. 
Clinch (1797-1880), 394 ; MacDonald Clark (1798-1842), 398 ; 
Robert C. Sands (1799-1832), 399 ; Caroline N. Kirkland 
(1801-1864), 401 ; James G. Brooks (1801-1841), 402 ; George 
P. Morris (1802-1864), 403 ; William Leggett (1802-1839), 
406 ; John Inman (1805-1850), 408 ; Charles Fenno Hoffman 
(1806-1884), 409 ; Laughton Osborn (1808-1878), 413 ; Alfred 
B. Street (1811-1881), 414 ; Henry T. Tuckerman (1813-1871), 
416; Evart a. Duyckinck (1816-1878), 417; William A. 
Jones (b. 1817), 419 ; Frederick S. Cozzens (1818-1869), 421 ; 
Richard Grant White (1822-1885), 424. 

INDEX, 435t0 44J 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



STEEL PORTRAITS: 

William Cullen Bryant, FrontisJ>iece 

(Sarony, Phot. ; H. B. Hall & Sons, Eng.) 

James K. Paulding, 129 

(Eng. by F. Halpin, from a Drawing by Joseph Wood.) 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, 245 

(Thomas Hicks, Pinx. ; H. Wright Smith, Eng.) 

MANUSCRIPT FAC-SIMILES: 

William Cullen Bryant, Face 11 

Washington Irving, 157 

(From last page of " Bracebridga Hall;" signed "Geof- 
frey Crayon.") 

Richard Henry Dana, 179 

(" The Little Beach-Bird." Copied December, 1876.) 

Joseph Rodman Drake, 280 

(" Abdlard and Eloise ;" heretofore unpublished.) 

Nathaniel Parker Willis, 312 

Edgar A. Poe, 334 

Bayard Taylor, 347 

John Howard Payne, . . . ' 390 

George P. Morris, . . . . , .... 404 

Alfred B. Street, ....,,... 4^6 




^ ^ 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



CHAPTER 1. 



The gravity and stillness of your youth 

The world hath noted, and your name is great 

In mouths of wisest censure. 

William Shakespeare. 

O charming youth ! in the first op'ning page: 
So many graces in so greeen an age! 

John Dryden. 

He had the wisdom of age in his youth, and the fire of 
youth in his age. — Mark Hopkins. 

Sir Walter Scott relates that, when some 
one was mentioned as a "fine old man" to Dean 
Swift, he exclaimed with violence that there was 
no such thing. " If the man you speak of had 
either a mind or a body worth a farthing, they 
would have worn him out long ago." In refuta- 
tion of this theory, which it may be presumed 
has nothing to do with thews or stature, may be 



12 BRYANT AND HJS- FHI^j^^S. 

cited Beranger and Brougham, Goethe and 
Guizot, Humboldt and Sir Henry Holland, 
Lyndhurst and Palmerston, Earl Russell and 
Field-Marshal Moltke, and among Americans, 
J. Q. Adams and Taney, Professors Henry and 
Hodge, Horace Binney and Richard Henry Dana, 
who passed ninety-one — the age at which Titian 
said that genius never grows old. But if we 
were asked for a bright and shining example 
of faculties, and faculties of a high order, re- 
maining unimpaired in mind and body till long 
past the grand climacteric, we might name Wil- 
liam Cullen Bryant, the beloved patriarch of 
American poetry, and " the most accomplished, 
the most distinguished, and the most universally 
honored citizen of the United States," who, 
having lived under twenty Presidential adminis- 
trations of ourcountiy, down to that of Garfield 
and Arthur, until the last week of May, 1878, 
completed his fourscore years and three, cheerful 
and full of conversation, and continued to the 
end to heartily enjoy what Dr. Johnson happily 
calls " the sunshine of life." 

No name in our contemporaneous literature, 
either in England or America, is crowned with 
more successful honours than that of William 
Cullen Bryant. Born among the granite hills of 
Massachusetts, at a period when our colonial 
literature, like our people, was but recently 
under the dominion of Great Britain, he lived to 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1 3 

see that literature expand from its infancy and 
take a proud place in the republic of letters, and 
he survived to see the Republic itself, after 
triumphantly crushing a giant rebellion, spring 
up to a giant power. Surrounded by such his- 
toric and heroic associations, men like Bryant,, 
who survive, embody in their lives the annals of a 
people, and represent in their individuality the 
history of a nation. 

Pursuing beyond the age of fourscore an ener- 
getic literary career, the poet was also an active 
co-labourer in all worthy movements to promote 
the advancement of the arts and literature. A 
liberal patron of art himself, he was always a 
judicious and eloquent advocate of the claims 
of artists. On the completion of the beautiful 
Venetian temple to art erected by the New York 
Academy of Design, Mr, Bryant delivered the 
address dedicating the building and consecrating 
it to its uses. Foremost in the literary circles of 
his adopted city, he was for many years the 
president of that tigie-honoured institution of 
New York, the Century Club, of which Gulian 
C. Verplanck and George Bancroft had previ- 
ously been presidents, and which has always 
embraced among its members men of letters, 
prominent artists, and leading gentlemen of the 
liberal professions. Philanthropic in his nature, 
Bryant was ever the consistent promoter of all 
objects having for their tendency the elevation 



1 4 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

of humanity and the furtherance of its interests. 
He might have echoed the remark of Victor 
Hugo, who had for half a century claimed that 
"all humanity was his family." Said the Rev. 
R. C. Waterston: "It was universally acknowl- 
edged that his integrity was as immovable as a 
mountain of adamant; and that, in all his ef- 
forts, he had no motive less elevated than the 
public good." Connected with the leading even- 
ing metropolitan journal, one of the oldest in the 
United States, he was enabled to bring the pow- 
erful influence of the press to bear with his own 
great literary renown and personal weight upon 
whatever measure he supported in the cause of 
philanthropy, letters, and the promotion of art. 

William Cullen Bryant was born in a log-house 
at Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachu- 
setts, November 3, 1794.* He was a descend- 



* A general misapprehension exists as to Mr. Bryant's 
birthplace. He was born, as he told the writer, not in 
what is now known as the " Bryant Homestead," but in a 
small house constructed of square logs and long since re- 
moved. This fact is further confirmed by the following 
note from the poet to a friend, dated December 5, 1876: 
" Your uncle Eliphalet Packard was quite right in designat- 
ing my birthplace. As the tradition of my family goes, 1 
was born in a house which then stood at the north-west 
corner of a road leading north of the burying-ground on the 
hill, and directly opposite to the burying-ground. The 
house was afterwards removed and placed near that occu- 
pied then by Daniel Dawes. I suppose there is nothing 
left of it now," 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. I 5 

ant of the English and Scotch families of Alden, 
Ames, Harris, Hay ward, Howard, Keith, Mitch- 
ell, Packard, Snell, and Washburn, and through 
them from several of the Pilgrims who landed 
from the Mayflower at Plymouth, on the 22d of 
December, 1620 — not a bad genealogy for an 
American citizen, nor unlike that of his brother- 
poet Halleck, who was descended from the 
Pilgrim Fathers, including John Eliot, the apos- 
tle to the Indians. Bryant also had a worthy 
clerical ancestor in the person of James Keith, 
the first minister of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 
who, after having preached from 'the same pulpit 
fifty-six years, died in that town in 17 19, 

Stephen Bryant, the first of the poet's Ameri- 
can ancestors of his own name, who is known to 
have been at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as early 
as 1632, and who some time before 1650 married 
Abigail Shaw, had several children, one of whom 
was also named Stephen. He was the father of 
Ichabod Bryant, who moved from Raynham to 
West Bridgewater in 1745, bringing with him 
a certificate of dismission from the church at 
Raynham, and a recommendation to that of his 
new place of residence. Philip, the eldest of his 
five sons, studied medicine and settled in North 
Bridgewater, now Brockton, where his house is 
still standing. Dr. Philip Bryant married Si- 
lence Howard, daughter of Dr. Abiel How^ard, 
with whom he studied medicine. One of their 



1 6 BR YANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

nine children, a son called Peter, born in the 
year 1767, studied his father's profession, and 
sjicceeded to his practice. At that time there 
lived in the same town a Revolutionary veteran, 
"stern and severe," named Ebenezer Snell, of 
whom, as a small boy of the period, but recently 
deceased, informed the writer, "all the boys of 
Bridgewater were dreadfully afraid," so austere 
and authoritative were his manners. The old 
soldier had a pretty daughter who won the 
susceptible young doctor's affections, so that 
when Squire Snell removed with his family to 
Cummington, and built what is now known as 
the "Bryant Homestead," Peter Bryant followed, 
establishing himself there as a physician and 
surgeon, and in 1792 was married to "sweet 
Sarah Snell," as she is called in one of the 
youthful doctor's poetic effusions. Five sons 
and two daughters were the fruit of this happy 
marriage, their second son being the subject of 
this sketch. Of these seven children, but one 
son survives, John Howard Bryant of Illinois, 
who, with his brother Arthur,* was present at the 
poet's funeral. 



*Arthur Bryant was born at Cummington, November 28, 
1803, and died at Princeton, Illinois, where he had resided 
for more than half a century, February 5, 1883. His 
brother John was born July 22, 1807. Writing to the 
author'in March, 1884, of his elder brothers Austin, Cyrus, 
and Arthur, he says: "They lived and died on farms., and 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1/ 

Dr. Peter Bryant's bearing, I was told by an 
aged man who remembered him, was the very 
reverse of that of his gruff father-in-law. Al- 
though reserved, he was gentle in manner, with 
a low, soft voice, and always attired with scru- 
pulous neatness. While not above the height of 
his gifted son, he was broad-shouldered, and 
would sometimes exhibit his great strength by 
lifting a barrel of cider from the ground over 
the wheel into a waggon. According to the ac- 
count of another who knew him, he was "pos- 
sessed of extensive literary and scientific ac- 
quirem.ents, an unusually vigorous and well- 
disciplined mind, and an elegant and refined 
taste." He was for his son Cullen an able and 
skilful instructor, who chastened, improved, and 
encouraged the first rude efforts of his boyish 
genius. A personal friend of the poet wrote of 
him in 1840 that "his father, his guide in the 
first attempts at versification, taught him the 
value of correctness and compression, and en- 
abled him to distinguish between true poetic 
enthusiasm and fustian." 

The son in after-life commemorated the teach- 
ings and trainings of the father in a poem entitled 
" Hym'n to Death," published in 1825, which has 
often been quoted for its beauty and pathos: 



they were all intelligent, respected, and worthy citizens, of 
whom no one need be ashamed." 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



" For he is in his grave who laught my youth 
The art of verse, and in the end of life 
Offered me the Muses. Oh, cut off 
Untimely ! when the reason in its strength, 
Ripened by years of toll and studious search, 
And watch of nature's silent lessons, taught 
Thy hand to practise best the lenient art 
To which thou gavest thy laborious days, 
And lost thy life." 

The poet's great-gi-andfather, Dr. Abiel How- 
ard, a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 
1729, had an extensive library for those titnes, and 
in his youth wrote verses. Some of these were 
in Mr. Bryant's possession, and, to quote his own 
words, "show no small power of poetic expres- 
sion." The inclination to express themselves in 
poetic form reappeared in Dr. Howard's grand- 
children. Dr. Bryant wrote many songs and 
love-stanzas in his younger days, and some satir- 
ical political poems in middle age. His sister 
Ruth Bryant, who died young, left several meri- 
torious poems which her nephew had read in 
manuscript. When Mr. Bryant was studying law, 
the late Judge Daniel Howard asked him from 
whom he inherited his poetic gift; he promptly 
replied, from his great-grandfather Dr. How- 
ard. The poet's surviving brother recently said 
to the writer, " We were all addicted, more or less, 
to the unprofitable business of rhyming." 

It was the dream of Dr. Bryant's life to edu- 
cate a child for his own and his father's loved 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1 9 

profession, and so it came to pass that his second 
son was named after one of the great Scottish 
medical lights of that era, William Cullen, an 
eminent Edinburgh physician. The child was 
frail, and his head was deemed too large for his 
body, which fact so disturbed the worthy doctor 
that, unable to find in the books any remedy for 
excessive cerebral development, he decided upon 
a remedy of his own, and directed that the child 
should be daily ducked in an adjoining spring 
of clear cold water. Two of Dr. Bryant's stu- 
dents were deputed to carry the child from his 
bed each morning and to immerse him and his 
immense head. The tradition is that the em- 
bryo-poet fought stoutly against this singular 
proceeding, of which the 5^oung mother did not 
approve, but which notwithstanding was con- 
tinued till the discrepancy of proportion between 
the head and the body disappeared, and the 
father no longer deemed its continuance neces- 
sary. 

As a child Bryant exhibited extraordinary 
precocity. He received instruction at home 
from his mother, whose school education, like 
that of most American women of her day, was 
limited to the ordinary English branches. He 
also was instructed by his father and an uncle, 
who taught him 

"A little Latine and less Greeke," 



20 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Bryant has happily told the story of his boy- 
hood * in better and more entertaining style 
than it can by any possibility be narrated by 
another. It forms a charming chapter in an 
autobiography to which the venerable poet de- 
voted an occasional hour during the closing 
years of his long career. Says Mr. Bryant: 

" The boys of the generation to which I belonged — 
that is to say, who were born in the last years of the 
last century or the earliest of this — were brought up 
under a system of discipline which put a far greater 
distance between parents and their children than now 
exists. The parents seemed to think this necessary in 
order to secure obedience. They were believers in the 
old maxim that familiarity breeds contempt. My 
own parents lived in the house with my grand- 
father and grandmother on the mother's side. My 
grandfather was a disciplinarian of the stricter sort, 
and I can hardly find words to express the awe in 
which I stood of him — an awe so great as almost to 
prevent anything like affection on my part, although 
he was in the main kind, and certainly never thought 
of being severe beyond what was necessary to main- 
tain a proper degree of order in the family. 

" The other boys in that part of the country, my 
schoolmates and playfellows, were educated on the 
same system. Yet there were at that time some indi- 
cations that this very severe discipline was beginning 
to relax. With my father and mother I was on much 



* "The Boys of my Boyhood." St. Nicholas Magazine, 
December, 1876, 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 21 

easier terms than with my grandfather. If a favour 
was to be asked of my grandfather, it was asked with 
fear and trembling; the request was postponed to the^ 
last moment, and then made with hesitation and 
blushes and a confused utterance. 

" One of the means of keeping the boys of that gen- 
eration in order was a little bundle of birchen rods, 
bound together by a small cord, and generally sus- 
pended on a nail against the wall in the kitchen. This 
was esteemed as much a part of the necessary furniture 
as the crane that hung in the kitchen fireplace, or the 
shovel and tongs. It sometimes happened that the 
boy suffered a fate similar to that of the eagle in the 
fable, wounded by an arrow fledged with a feather 
from his own wing ; in other words, the boy was made 
to gather the twigs intended for his own castigation. 

"The awe in which the boys of that time held their 
parents extended to all elderly persons, toward whom 
our behaviour was more than merely respectful, for we 
all observed a hushed and subdued demeanour in their 
presence. Toward the ministers of the Gospel this 
behaviour was particularly marked. At that time every 
township in Massachusetts, the State in which I lived, 
had its minister, who was settled there for life, and 
when he once came among his people was understood 
to have entered into a connection with them scarcely 
less lasting than the marriage-tie. The community in 
which he lived regarded him with great veneration, 
and the visits which from time to time he made to the 
district schools seemed to the boys important occasions, 
for which special preparation was made. When he 
came to visit the school which I attended, we all had 
on our Sunday clothes, and were ready for him with 



22 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

a few answers to the questions in the 'Westminster 
Catechism.' He heard us recite our lessons, examined 
us in the catechism, and then began a little address, 
which I remember was the same on every occasion. 
He told us how much greater were the advantages of 
education wliich we enjoyed than those which had 
fallen to the lot of our parents, and exhorted us to 
make the best possible use of them, both for our own 
sakes and that of our parents, who were ready to make 
any sacrifice for us, even so far as to take the bread 
out of their own mouths to give us. I remember be- 
ing disgusted with this illustration of parental kind- 
ness, which I was obliged to listen to twice at least 
in every year. 

" The good man had, perhaps, less reason than he 
supposed to magnify the advantages of education en- 
joyed in the common-schools at that time. Reading, 
spelling, writing, and arithmetic, with a little grammar 
and a little geography, were all that was taught, and 
these by persons much less qualified, for the most 
part, than those who now give instruction. Those, 
however, who wished to proceed further took lessons 
from graduates of the colleges, who were then much 
more numerous in proportion to the population than 
they now are. 

"One of the entertainments of the boys of my time 
was what were called the ' raisings,' meaning the erec- 
tion of the timber-frames of houses or barns, to which 
the boards were to be afterward nailed. Here the min- 
ister made a point of being present, and liither the 
able-bodied men of the neighbourhood, the young men 
especially, were summoned, and took part in the work 
with great alacrity. It was a spectacle for us next to 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 23 

that of a performer on the tight-rope to see the young 
men walk steadily on the narrow footing of the beams 
at a great height from the ground, or as they stood to 
catch in their hands the wooden pins and the braces 
flung to them from below. They vied with each other 
in the dexterity and daring with which they went 
through with the work, and when the skeleton of the 
building was put together, some one among them gen- 
erally capped the climax of fearless activity by stand- 
ing on the ridgepole with his head downward and his 
heels in the air. At that time even the presence of 
the minister was no restraint upon the flow of milk- 
punch and grog, which, in some cases, was taken to 
excess. The practice of calling the neighbours to these 
' raisings ' is now discontinued in the rural neighbor- 
hoods ; the carpenters provide their own workmen for 
the business of adjusting the timbers of the new build- 
ing to each other, and there is no consumption of 
grog. 

" Another of the entertainments of rustic life in the 
region of which I am speaking was the making of 
maple-sugar. This was a favorite frolic of the boys. 

" In autumn, the task of stripping the husks from 
the ears of Indian corn was made the occasion of 
social meetings, in which the boys took a special part. 
A farmer would appoint what was called 'a husking,' 
to which he invited his neighbours. The ears of maize 
in the husk, sometimes along with part of the stalk, 
were heaped on the barn floor. In the evening lan- 
terns were brought, and, seated on piles of dry husks, 
the men and boys stripped the ears of their covering, 
and, breaking them from the stem with a sudden jerk, 
threw them into baskets placed for the purpose. It 



24 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

was often a merry time : the gossip of the neighbour- 
hood was talked over, stories were told, jests went 
round, and at the proper hour the assembly adjourned 
to the dwelling-house, and were treated to pumpkin- 
pie and cider, which in that season had not been so 
long from the press as to have parted with its sweet- 
ness. 

" Quite as cheerful were the 'apple-parings,' which 
on autumn evenings brought together the young peo- 
ple of both sexes in little circles. The fruit of the 
orchards was pared and quartered and the core ex- 
tracted, and a supply of apples in this State provided 
for making what was called 'apple-sauce,' a kind of 
preserve of which every family laid in a large quantity 
every year. 

" The cider-making season in autumn was, at the 
time of which I am speaking, somewhat correspondent 
to the vintage in the wine-countries of Europe. Large 
tracts of land in New England were overshadowed by 
rows of apple-trees, and in the month of May a journey 
through that region was a journey through a wilder- 
ness of bloom. In the month of October the whole 
population was busy gathering apples under the trees, 
from which they fell in heavy showers as the branches 
were shaken by the strong arms of the farmers. The 
creak of the cider-mill, turned by a horse moving in a 
circle, was heard in every neighbourhood as one of the 
most common of rural sounds. The freshly-pressed 
juice of the apples was most agreeable to boyish tastes, 
and the whole process of gathering the fruit and mak- 
ing the cider came in among the more laborious rural 
occupations in a way which diversified them pleasantly, 
and which made it seem a pastime. The time that 



WILLIAM CULL EN BRYANT. 25 

was given to making cider, and the number of barrels 
made and stored in the cellars of the farm-houses, 
would now seem incredible. A hundred barrels to a 
single farm was no uncommon proportion, and the 
quantity swallowed by the men of that day led to the 
habits of intemperance which at length alarmed the 
more thoughtful part of the community, and gave oc- 
casion to the formation of temperance societies and 
the introduction of better habits. 

"The streams which biclcered through the narrow 
glens of the region in which I lived were much better 
stocked with trout in those days than now, for the 
country had been newly opened to settlement. The 
boys all were anglers. I confess to having felt a strong 
interest in that ' sport,' as I no longer call it. I have 
long since been weaned from the propensity of which 
I speak ; but I have no doubt that the instinct which 
inclines so many to it, and some of them our grave 
divines, is a remnant of the original wild nature of 
man. 

" I have not mentioned other sports and games of 
the boys of tliat day ; that is to say, of seventy or 
eighty years since — such as wrestling, running, leap- 
ing, base-ball, and the like, for in these there was 
nothing to distinguish them from the same pastimes 
at the present day. There were no public lectures at 
that time on subjects of general interest ; the profes- 
sion of public lecturer was then unknown, and eminent 
men were not solicited, as they now are, to appear be- 
fore audiences in distant parts of the country, and 
gratify the curiosity of strangers by letting them hear 
the sound of their voices. But the men of those days 
were far more given to attendance on public worship 



26 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

than those who now occupy their place, and of course 
they took their boys with them. 

" Every parish had its tithing-men, two in number 
generally, whose business it was to maintain order in 
the church during divine service, and who sat with a 
stern countenance through the sermon, keeping a 
vigilant eye on the boys in the distant pews and in the 
galleries. Sometimes, when he detected two of them 
communicating with each other, he went to one of 
them, took him by the button, and, leading him away, 
seated him beside himself. His power extended to 
other delinquencies. He was directed by law to see 
that the Sabbath was not profaned by people wander- 
ing in the fields and angling in the brooks. At that 
time a law, no longer in force, directed that any person 
who absented himself unnecessarily from public wor- 
ship for a certain length of time should pay a fine into 
the treasury of the county. I remember several persons 
of whom it was said that they had been compelled to 
pay this fine, but I do not remember any of them who 
went to church afterwards." 

Bryant's education was continued under his 
uncle the Rev. Thomas Snell* of Brookfield, in 
whose family he lived and studied for one year; 
and by the Rev. Moses Hallock of Plainfield he 
was prepared for college. His brother Arthur 



* Dr. Snell was pastor of the North Parish of Brookfield 
for sixty-four years. An instance that surpasses this is re- 
corded of an English clergyman of ninety-six, who has held 
for seventy- two years the same living he now holds. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 2/ 

remembered that when the young poet came 
home on visits from his uncle Snell's or " Parson 
Hallock's," he was in the habit of playing at 
games with them, and of amusing them in 
various ways; that he excelled as a runner, 
and had many successful running contests witli 
his college classmates; also that he was accus- 
tomed on his home visits to declaim, for the en- 
tertainment of the family-circle, some of his own 
compositions, both in prose and verse. He was 
at this time a small, delicate, and handsome 
youth, very shy and reserved, and a great reader, 
devouring every volume that he could meet with, 
and resembling the hero of Waverley in "driving 
through a sea of books like a vessel without 
pilot or rudder." He was, as I was informed by 
Dr. Hallock, who studied with him at that time, — 
now seventy-five years ago, — a natural scholar 
like his father, and, although but fifteen, he had 
already accumulated a vast stock of information. 
In a letter to the Rev. H. Seymour of Northamp- 
ton, Massachusetts, published after Mr. Bryant's 
death, he speaks as follows of his early studies 
of Greek: "I began with the Greek alphabet, 
passed to the declensions and conjugations, 
which I committed to memory, and was put into 
the Gospel of St. John. In two calendar months 
from the time of beginning with the powers of 
the Greek alphabet I had read every book in the 
New Testanient. I supposed, at the time, that I 



28 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

had made pretty good progress, but do not even 
now know whether that was very extraordinary." 
He found more pleasure in books, and in silent 
rambles among the hills and valleys, than in the 
usual sports and pastimes of youth of that age. 
In October, 1810, when in his sixteenth year, 
he entered the Sophomore class of Williams Col- 
lege. He continued his studies there during one 
winter with the same ardor as before, but not 
with the same enthusiasm or pleasure. He did 
not like his college life, some features of which 
were distasteful to his shy and sensitive nature; 
and so with his father's permission he obtained 
an honorable dismissal in May, 181 1, and in due 
time received the degree as a member of the 
class of 1813, of which there were in June, 1878, 
but two survivors, the Rev. Elisha D. Barrett * of 
Missouri, and the Hon. Charles F. Sedgwick f 
of Connecticut. Dr. Calvin Durfee, the late 
historian of Williams College, said to me that 
Mr. Bryant " did not graduate in a regular course 

* The Rev. Elisha Dow Barrett was born in Montgomery, 
Mass., January 19, 1790, and died at Sedalia, Mo., Novem- 
ber 6, 1880, having almost attained to the great age of 
ninety-one. 

f Charles Frederick Sedgwick, the Nestor of the bar of 
his native State of Connecticut, was born at Cromwell, 
September i, 1795, and died at Sharon, March 9, 1882. 
He was the last survivor of his class, as he was certainly 
the largest, being, as Bryant told me, "about six feet 
four inches tall, and large in proportion." :• 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 29 

with his class; still, years ago, by vote of the 
trustees of the college, he was restored to his 
place in the class, and has been enrolled among 
the alumni." 

"Some of the students of Williams College," 
wrote Mr. Bryant in 1859, "were not satisfied 
with the degree of scholarship attained there and 
desired to join an institution where the sphere 
of instruction was more extended. One of 
these was my room-mate, John Avery of Conway, 
Mass., a most worthy man and a good scholar, 
who afterwards became a minister of the Epis- 
copal Church, and settled in Maryland. At the 
end of his Sophomore year he obtained a dismis- 
sion, and was matriculated at Yale College, New 
Haven. I also, perhaps somewhat influenced by 
his example, sought and obtained, near the end 
of my Sophomore year, an honourable dismission 
from Williams College, with the same intention. 
I passed some time afterwards in preparing 
myself for admission at Yale, but the pecuniary 
circumstances of my father prevented me from 
carrying my design into effect." 

The late Rev. William A. Hallock, D.D., who 
studied for six months with Bryant when he was 
preparing for college under his father, the Rev. 
Moses Hallock, showed me a poem with the 
Greek title of " Gurlianopolis," beginning with 
the lines — 

" Hemmed in with hills, whose heads aspire, 
Abrupt and rude, and hung with woods," 



30 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

which Cullen, as he called him when his school- 
fellow, wrote on Williams College, and left 
behind in his room on his departure from the 
institution.* The rather severe and satirical pro- 
duction passed into the possession of Hallock, 
who entered Williams College in 1815, and was 
carefully preserved by him, certainly for more 
than threescore years, there being no other copy 
in existence. When I mentioned it to Mr, 
Bryant, and suggested that the poem should be 
printed, he said, "Oh no! it was one of my boy- 



* Like Bryant, Lord Tennyson, in the following sonnet, 
first published in 1884, fails to exhibit much veneration for 
his abna mater. In a note the Poet-Laureate says. "I 
have a great affection for my old University, and can only 
regret that this spirit of undergraduate irritability against the 
Cambridge of that day ever found its way into print." The 
words of the sonnet are these: 

"Therefore your Halls, your ancient Colleges, 
Your portals statued with old kings and queens, 
Your gardens, myriad-volumed libraries, 
Wax-lighted chapels, and rich-carven screens, 
Your doctors, and your proctors, and your deans 
Shall not avail you, when the Day-beam sports 
New-risen o'er awaken'd Albion— No! 
Nor yet your solemn organ-pipes that blow 
Melodious thunders thro' your vacant courts 
At morn and eve — because your manner sorts 
Not with this age wherefrom ye stand apart — 
Because the lips of little children preach 
Against you, you that do profess to teach 
And teach us nothing, feeding not the heart." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 3 1 

ish pranks. I have no copy of the lines, nor do 
I remember much about them. At the time, I 
believe, I did not like the dark rooms, the lovir- 
lying land, and the rigid college regulations, and 
I suppose I so expressed myself in the verses 
Dr. Hallock showed you." My recollection is 
that the poem consisted of six, or perhaps seven, 
stanzas of six lines each. 

Judge Sedgwick, under date Sharon, July 3, 
1878, wrote to the author: 

"I have your favor of the ist instant, asking me to 
give you some of my recollections of the college life of 
my classmate W. C. Bryant. It gives me great pleasure 
to comply with your request, so far as I am able ; but 
the short time during which he remained a member of 
the college could not be productive of many events of 
very great interest. Since his decease, many incorrect 
statements in relation to this portion of his history have 
gone forth, most of them intimating that he was a 
member of the college for two years. The truth is 
that, having entered the Sophomore class in October, 
1810, and then having continued his membership for 
two terms, he took a dismission in May, 181 1, intending 
to complete his collegiate education at Yale College. 
As stated above, he entered our class at the commence- 
ment of the Sophomore year. His room-mate was 
John Avery of Conway, Mass., who was some eight 
years his senior in age. Bryant had not then attained to 
the physical dimensions which he afterwards reached, 
but his bodily structure was remarkably regular and 
Systen]9tic. He had a prolific growth of dark-brown 



32 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

hair, and I do not remember ever to have known a 
person in whom the progress of years made so great a 
difference in personal appearance as it did in the case 
of Mr. Bryant. I met him twice near the close of his 
life at Williams College Commencements, and if I had 
not seen pictures of him as he appeared in old age, I 
would hardly have been persuaded of his identity with 
the Bryant I knew in early life. 

" When he entered college, it was known that he was 
the reputed author of two or three short poems which 
had recently been published, and which indicated 
decidedly promising talent on the part of their author. 
When spoken to in relation to these poetical effusions 
he was reticent and modest, and in fact his modesty in 
everything was a peculiar trait of his character. It 
was very difficult to obtain from him any specimens of 
his talent as a poet. One exercise demanded of the 
students was the occasional writing of a composition, 
to be read to the tutor in presence of the class, and 
once Bryant, in fulfilling this requirement, read a short 
poem which received the decided approval of the tutor, 
and once he translated one of the Odes of Horace, 
which he showed to a few personal friends. Those 
were the only examples of his poetry that I now 
remember of his furnishing during his college life. It 
may be stated here that the tutor who instructed Mr. 
Bryant in college was the Rev. Orange Lyman, who 
was afterwards the Presb3^terian clergyman at Vernon, 
Oneida County, N. Y. 

"Bryant, during all his college experience, was 
remarkably quiet, pleasant, and unobtrusive in his 
manners, and studious in the literary course. His 
lessons were all well mastered, and not a single event 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 33 

occurred during his residence which received the least 
disapproval of the Faculty. 

"Your letter reminds me of the fact that there are 
but very few persons left who knew Mr. Bryant in 
college. ' The Flood of Years ' has swept them all 
away, except the Rev. Herman Halsey,* of the class of 
1811, who yet survives in Western New York; the 
Rev. Dr. Dewey t of Sheffield, Mass., of the class of 1814; 
and my classmate, the Rev. E. D. Barrett of Missouri; 
and myself, of the class of 181 3. If I live to see the 
first day of September, I shall have completed eighty- 
three years of life." 

The Rev. E. D. Barrett, from Sedalia, Mis- 
souri, July 9, 1878, wrote to me: 

" I well remember Bryant's first appearance at college 
in my Sophomore year. Many of the class were assem- 
bled in one of our rooms when he presented himself, 
A friendly greeting passed round the circle, and all 
seemed to enjoy the arrival of the young stranger and 
poet. News of Mr. Bryant's precocious intellect, his 
poetical genius, and his literary taste had preceded his 
arrival. He was looked up to with great respect, and 
regarded as an honour to the class of which he had 



*The Rev. Herman Halsey, born July 16, 1793, writes 
to me under date of March, 1884: "Health comfortable, 
but am conscious of the infirmities of age." He is the last 
survivor among the students who were in college with the 
poet. 

f Orville Dewey, the eloquent Unitarian divine, Bryant's 
life-long friend and correspondent, died at Sheffield, Mass., 
his native place, March 21, 1882, aged eighty-eight. 



34 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

become a member, and to the college which had now 
received him as his alma mater. I was the poet's 
senior by more than four years, having been born in 
January, 1790, and am, with the single exception of 
Charles F. Sedgwick, the sole survivor of the Williams 
College class of 181 3." 

No American poet has equalled Bryant in 
early poetic development. In that particular he 
surpassed Pope and Cowley and Byron.* At 
the age of nine we find him composing tolerably 
clever verses, and four years later writing '' The 
Embargo," a political as well as poetical satire 
upon the Jeffersonian Party of that day. The 
poem is also remarkable as having manifested at 
that early age a political order of mind, which 
continued to develop in an equal ratio with his 
poetical nature through life. That mind, in- 
deed, taking higher range, was not active in the 
turmoils and schemes of politicians; but it in- 
vestigated the great questions of political econ- 
om}^ and grappled with principles of the gravest 
moment to society and humanity. 

* The Saturday Reviezv of June 22 says: " The death of 
Bryant does not indeed deprive America of her oldest 
poet, — for the venerable Dana still survives, — but even Mr. 
Dana can hardly have published verses earlier than the 
'Infantalia' of Mr. Bryant. He lisped in numbers which 
were duly printed when he was but ten years of age, and 
in his early lines, published in 1804, shows a precocity as 
great as that of the late Bishop of St. David's — Dr. Connop 
Thirlwall." 



WILLIAM CULL EN BRYANT. 35 

"The Embargo; or, Sketch of the Times: a 
Satire," we could easily imagine had been writ- 
ten in 1885, instead of seventy-eight years ago, 
when, our fathers tell us, demagogism was un- 
known: 

" E'en while I sing, see Faction urge her claim, 
Mislead with falsehood, and with zeal inflame; 
Lift her black banner, spread her empire wide, 
And stalk triumphant with a Fury's stride! 
She blows her brazen trump, and at the sound 
A motley throng obedient flock around: 
A mist of changing hue around she flings, 
And darkness perches on her dragon wings." 

This poem, printed in Boston, attracted the 
public attention, and the edition was soon sold. 
To the second edition, containing "The Spanish 
Revolution" and several other juvenile pieces,* 
was prefixed this curious advertisement, dated 
February, 1809: 

" A doubt having been intimated in the Monthly 
Anthology of June last whether a youth of thir- 
teen years could have been the author of this 
poem, in justice to his merits, the friends of the 
writer feel obliged to certify the fact from their 
personal knowledge of himself and his family, 
as well as his literary improvement and extraor- 
dinary talents. They would premise that they 



* Mr. Bryant, in a note to the writer, says, "The first 
edition of my poem called ' The Embargo' did not contain 
any other poems. They were added in the second edition." 



36 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

do not come uncalled before the public to bear 
this testimony: they would prefer that he should 
be judged by his works without favour or affec- 
tion. As the doubt has been suggested, they 
deem it merely an act of justice to remove it ; 
after which they leave him a candidate for 
favour in common with other literary adventurers. 
They therefore assure the public that Mr. Bry- 
ant, the author, is a native of Cummington, in 
the county of Hampshire, and in the month of 
November last arrived at the age of fourteen 
years. The facts can be authenticated by many 
of the inhabitants of that place, as well as by 
several of his friends who give this notice. And 
if it be deemed worthy of further inquiry, the 
printer is enabled to disclose their names and 
places of residence." 

In September, 1817, appeared in the North 
American Review the poem entitled " Thanatop- 
sis," which Professor Wilson said was "alone 
sufficient to establish the author's claims to the 
honors of genius." It was written in a few 
weeks, in his eighteenth year,* and but slightly 



* In a letter to the writer, dated March 15, 1869, Mr. 
Bryant says: "I return your article, the great fault of 
which is too kind an appreciation of its subject. ... I am 
not certain that the poem entitled "Thanatopsis ' was not 
written a year earlier than you have made it; indeed, I am 
much inclined to think it was in my eighteenth 5'ear. I 
was not a college student at the time, though I was pursu- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 37 

retouched during the time that elapsed between 
its composition and its first appearance in print. 
The poem created a marked sensation at the 
time of its appearance, not unlike that caused by 
the publication of Halleck's " Marco Bozzaris," 
a few years later. Richard H. Dana was then a 
member of the committee which conducted the 
Review, and received the manuscript poems 
" Thanatopsis" and the " Inscription on the En- 
trance to a Wood." The former was under- 
stood to have been written by Dr. Bryant and 
the latter by his son. When Dana learned the 
name, and heard that the author of "Thanatop- 
sis" was a member of the State Legislature, he 
proceeded to the Senate Chamber to observe 
the new poet. He saw there a man of dark 
complexion, with iron-gray hair, thick eyebrows, 
well-developed forehead, with an intellectual 
expression in which, however, he failed to find 

"The vision and the faculty divine." 

He went away puzzled and mortified at his lack 
of discernment. When Bryant in 182 1 delivered 
at Harvard University his didactic poem en- 
titled " The Ages" — a comprehensive poetical 
essay reviewing the world's progress in a pano- 
ramic view of the ages, and glowing with a 



ing college studies with a view of entering Yale College, 
having taken a dismission from Williams College for the 
purpose, which, however, was never accomplished." 



38 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

prophetic vision of the future of America — Dana 
alhided in complimentary terms to Dr. Bryant's 
" Thanatopsis," * and then learned for the first 
time that the son was the author of both poems. 
It is related that when the father showed a 
copy of "Thanatopsis" in manuscript, before its 
publication, to a lady well qualified to judge of 
its merits, simply saying, "Here are some lines 
that our Cullen has been writing," she read the 
poem, raised her eyes to the father's face, and 
burst into tears, in which Dr. Bryant, a some- 
what reserved and silent man, was not ashamed 
to join. " And no wonder," continues the writer; 
" it must have seemed a mystery that in the 
bosom of eighteen had grown up thoughts that 
even in boyhood shaped themselves into solemn 

* " Not long ago," says a New York paper, "a hotel 
proprietor called into his private office the steward and chef, 
with whom he wished to consult regarding a private dinner 
to be given at the hotel a subsequent evening. The menu 
was partially arranged, when all were puzzled for the name 
of an entree. 'Let us call it a la Thanatopsis,' said the 
steward, who had heard but knew nothing of the word 
or of Bryant's poem. 'Thanatopsis?' said the Boniface; 
'who was he?' 'Oh,' said the steward, 'he was some 
big French General in the Revolution.' ' Yes,' chimed 
in the equally ignorant chef, ' zat is so — I heard 'bout zat 
grande sheneral off en times.' So the menu was printed 
' Ris de Veau a la Thanatopsis.' To any as possibly 
ignorant as the trio it may be added that Thanatopsis is a 
compound Greek word meaning a view of death, or as some 
translate it, reflections on death !" 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 39 

harmonies, majestic as the diapason of ocean, fit 
for a temple-service beneath the vault of heaven." 
Mr. Bryant continued his classical and mathe- 
matical studies at home vi^ith a view to entering 
Yale College; but, abandoning this purpose, he 
became a lavvr-student in the office of Judge 
Howe of Worthington, afterwards completing 
his course of legal study with William Baylies, 
of West Bridgewater. He was admitted to the 
bar at Plymouth in 1815, and began practice at 
Plainfield, where he remained one year and then 
removed to Great Barrington (all these towns 
being in the State of Massachusetts). At Great 
Barrington he made the acquaintance of the 
author Catherine M. Sedgwick, who afterwards 
dedicated to him her novel " Redwood," and of 
Miss Frances Fairchild. The lovely qualities of 
this latter lady the young lawyer celebrated in 
verses which, for simple purity and delicate 
imagery, are most characteristic of our poet's 
genius. It may be of interest to read them here, 
in connection with the incidents of their origin: 

" Oh, fairest of the rural maids ! 
Thy birth was in the forest shades; 
Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky, 
Were all that met thine infant eye. 

" Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child, 
Were ever in the sylvan wild. 
And all the beauty of the place 
Is in thy heart and on thy face. 



40 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

" The twilight of the trees and rocks 
Is in the light shade of thy locks; 
Thy step is as the wind, that weaves 
Its playful way among the leaves. 

" Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene 
And silent waters heaven is seen; 
Their lashes are the herbs that look 
On their young figures in the brook. 

" The forest depths, by foot unpressed, 
Are not more sinless than thy breast; 
The holy peace, that fills the air 
Of those calm solitudes, is there." 

Miss Fairchild became Mr. Bryant's wife in 
182 1, and for more tiian two-score years was tlie 
"good angel of his life." The substantial house 
in which they were married sixty-four years ago 
is still standing. When the poet and his daugh- 
ter visited the place, after Mrs. Bryant's death, 
he remarked, his eyes filling with tears, " There 
is not a blade of grass that her foot has not 
touched.'' She is mentioned in many of the 
poet's stanzas. ''The Future Life" is addressed 
to her. "It was written," says Mr. Br3rant, in a 
note to me, " during the lifetime of my wife and 
some twenty years after our marriage — that is to 
say, about 1840, or possibly two or tliree years 
after." "The Life that Is" was also inspired by 
Mrs, Bryant, the poet having written it on the 
occasion of her recovery from a serious illness in 
Italy, in 1858. It is of so personal a character 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 4 1 

that the poet hesitated about publishing it. 
Two of the stanzas are as follows: 

" Twice wert thou given me; once in thy fair prime. 
Fresh from the fields of youth, when first we met, 
And all the blossoms of that hopeful time 

Clustered and glowed where'er thy steps were set. 

" And now, in thy ripe autumn, once again 

Given back to fervent prayers and yearnings strong. 
From the drear realm of sickness and of pain 
When we had watched, and feared, and trembled long." 

A few months after the young poet's mar- 
riage a small volume of forty-four dingy pages 
was published by Hilliard & Metcalf of Cam- 
bridge, Mass., entitled "Poems b)^ William Cul- 
len Bryant." A copy is now lying before 
me. It contains "The Ages," "To a Water- 
fowl," "Translation of a Fragment of Simon- 
ides," " Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood," 
"The Yellow Violet," " Song," "Green River," 
and "Thanatopsis." In this rare little volume 
the first and last paragraphs of the latter poem 
appear as they now stand, the version originally 
published in the North America^i Review having 
commenced with the lines, 

" Yet a few days, and thee 
The all-beholding sun shall see no more 
In all his course; " 

and ended with the words, 

" And make their bed with thee." 



42 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

In the winter of 1877-78, the writer met Mr. 
Bryant in a Broadway bookstore, and showed 
him a copy of this early edition of his poetical 
writings, which the dealer in literary wares had 
just sold for ten dollars. He laughingly re- 
marked, "Well, that's more than I received for 
its contents." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 43 



CHAPTER II. 

Blessings be with them, and eternal praise, 
Who gave us nobler lives, and nobler cares, — 
The Poets ! who on earth have made us heirs 

Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays ! 

William Wordsworth. 

This little life-boat of an earth, with its noisy crew of a 
mankind, and their troubled history, will one day have van- 
ished ; faded liice a cloud-speck from the azure of the all ! 
What, then, is man ? He endures but for an hour, and is 
crushed before the moth. Yet, in the being and in the 
working of a faithful man is there already (as all faith, 
from the beginning, gives assurance) a something that per- 
tains not to this wild death-element of time ; that triumphs 
over time, and is, will be, when time shall be no more. — 
Thomas Carlyle. 

In the year 1824 Mr. Bryant's picturesque 
poem, "A Forest Hymn," "The Old Man's 
Funeral," "The Murdered Traveller," and 
other poetical compositions appeared in the 
United States Literary Gazette, a weekly journal 
issued in Boston. The same year, at the sug- 
gestion of the Sedgwick family, he made his 
first visit to New York City, where, through 
their influence, he was introduced to many of 
the leading literary men of the metropolis. 



44 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

From the first Bryant was averse to the dull 
and distasteful routine of the profession in 
which he was — 

" Forced to drudge for the dregs of men 
And scrawl strange words with a barbarous pen." 

He could not like it, and his aversion for it 
daily increased. With Slender he could say, 
"If there be no great love in the beginning, yet 
Heaven may decrease it upon better acquaint- 
ance." His visit to New York decided his des- 
tiny. Abandoning the law, in which he had met 
with a fair measure of success, having enjoyed 
for nine years a reasonable share of the local 
practice of Great Harrington, he determined upon 
pursuing the career of a man of letters, so well 
described by Carlyle, the "Censor of the Age," 
as " an anarchic, nomadic, and entirely aerial and 
ill-conditioned profession ;" and he accordingly, 
in 1825, removed to New York, which continued 
to be his place of residence for more than half a 
century. Here he passed from earnest youth to 
venerable age — from thirty-one to eighty-four 
— in one unbroken path of honour and success. 

Establishing himself as a literary man in New 
York, the poet entered upon the editorship of a 
monthly magazine, to which he contributed 
" The Death of the Flowers" and many other 
popular poems, as well as numerous articles on 
art and kindred subjects. This position soon 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 45 

introduced Bryant into a very charming circle, 
composed of Cliancellor Kent ; Cooper, just 
achieving popularity by his American novels ; 
the young poets Halleck, Hillhouse, and Perci- 
val ; the painters Dunlap, Durand, Inman, and 
Morse ; the scholars Charles King and Ver- 
planck, and many other choice spirits, all except 
Durand and Weir, long since passed away. 

A few days after the poet's arrival in New 
York he met Cooper, to whom he had been 
previously introduced, who said : 

" Come and dine with me to-morrow; I live 
at No. 345 Greenwich Street." 

" Please put that down for me," said Bryant, 
"or I shall forget the place." 

" Can't you remember three-four-five ?" re- 
plied Cooper bluntly. 

Bryant did "remember three-four-five," not 
only for the day, but ever afterwards. He dined 
with the novelist according to appointment, 
meeting at the table, besides Cooper's immediate 
family, the poet Fitz- Greene Halleck. The 
warm friendship of these three gifted men was 
severed only by death. 

It was chiefly through the influence of the 
brothers Robert and Henry D. Sedgwick that 
Mr. Bryant was induced to abandon the uncon- 
genial pursuit of the law ; and it was througli 
the influence of the same gentlemen that, during 
the year 1826, he became connected witli the 



46 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Evening Post. Mr. H. D. Sedgwick, who was 
among the first to appreciate the genius of young 
Bryant, was a brother of Miss Sedgwick, the 
author, and at the time of his death in 1831 
he was among the most prominent lawyers and 
political writers of that day. To the Evening 
Post Mr. Bryant brought much literary experi- 
ence, taste, and learning, and even at that time a 
literary reputation. Halleck at that period paid 
in The Recorder a richly-deserved compliment to 
his brother bard when he wrote : 

"Bryant, whose songs are thoughts that bless 
The heart — its teachers and its joy — 

As mothers blend with their caress 

Lessons of truth and gentleness 
And virtue for the listening boy. 

Spring's lovelier flowers for many a day 

Have blossomed on his wandering way ; 
Beings of beauty and decay, 
They slumber in their autumn tomb ; 

But those that graced his own Green River 
And wreathed the lattice of his home. 
Charmed by his song from mortal doom, 

Bloom on, and will bloom on forever." * 

The Evening Post was founded by William 

* In a MS. letter before us, dated Philadelphia, April 7, 
1830, Willis Gaylord Clarke writes to William Jerden, the 
editor of the London Literary Gazette: " Bryant, who stands 
foremost among American poets, and Halleck and Percival, 
who stand next." He also mentions Whittier " as a young 
poet-editor of great promise." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 47 

Coleman, a lawyer of Massachusetts, its first 
number being issued on the i6th of November, 
1801. Mr. Coleman dying in 1826, the well-re- 
membered William Leggett became its assistant- 
editor, and continued such for ten years. Mr. 
Bryant, soon after his return from Europe in 
1836, upon the retirement of Mr. Leggett, as- 
sumed the sole editorial charge of the paper, 
conducting it, with intervals of absence, till the 
29th day of May, 1878, when he sat at his desk 
for the last time. To the Post, originally a Fed- 
eral journal, Mr. Bryant early gave a strongly 
Democratic tone, taking decided ground against 
all class legislation, and strongly advocating 
freedom of trade. When his party at a later 
day passed under the yoke of slavery, the poet 
followed his principles out of the party, becom- 
ing before the Civil War a strong Republican. 
In its management he was for a long time assisted 
by his son-in-law, Parke Godwin, and John Big- 
elow, late United States minister to France. Be- 
sides these able coadjutors, the Post has had the 
benefit of many eminent writers of prose and 
verse. To its columns Drake and Halleck con- 
tributed those sprightly and sparkling y^^^jx i/W- 
prit, "The Croakers," which, after nearly seventy 
years, are still read with pleasure. At the close 
of the Post's first half-century, Mr. Bryant pre- 
pared a history of the veteran journal, in which 
his versatile pen and well-stored mind had ample 



48 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

range and material, in men and incidents, to do 
justice to the very interesting and eventful period 
through which the paper had passed. 

The following terse and just characterization 
of Mr. Bryant as a political journalist, taken 
from an article which appeai'ed in the editorial 
column of the Post after his death, gives an ad- 
mirable summary of the man's life and work: 

" Mr. Bryant's political life was so closely associated 
with his journalistic life that they must necessarily be 
considered together. He never sought public office; 
he repeatedly refused to hold it. He made no effort 
either to secure or to use influence in politics except 
through his newspaper and by his silent, individual vote 
at the polls. The same methods marked his political 
and his journalistic life. He could be a stout party- 
man upon occasion, but only when the party promoted 
what he believed to be right principles. When the 
party with which he was accustomed to act did what 
according to his judgment was wrong, he would de- 
nounce and oppose it as readily and as heartily as he 
would the other party. . . . 

" He used the newspaper conscientiously to advo- 
cate views of political and social subjects which he 
believed to be correct. He set before himself princi- 
ples whose prevalence he regarded as beneficial to the 
country or to the world, and his constant purpose was 
to promote their prevalence. He looked upon the 
journal which he conducted as a conscientious states- 
man looks upon the official trust which has been com- 
mitted to him, or the work which he has undertaken 
— not with a view to do what is to be done to-day in 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 49 

the easiest or most brilliant way, but so to do it that 
it may tell upon what is to be done to-morrow, and all 
other days, until the worthiest object of ambition is 
achieved. This is the most useful journalism ; and, 
firstand last, it is the most effective and influential." 

The lines with which Dr. Johnson concluded 
a memoir of James Thomson may with equal 
truth be applied to the writings of William Cul- 
len Bryant: "The highest praise which he has 
received ought not to be suppressed : it is said 
by Lord Lyttleton, in the Prologue to his post- 
humous play, that his works contained 

" No line which, dying, he could wish to blot." 

Though actively and constantly connected 
with a daily paper, the poet found ample time 
to devote to verse and other literary pursuits. 
In 1827 and the two following years Mr. Bryant 
was associated with Verplanck and Robert C. 
Sands in an annual publication called " The 
Talisman," consisting of miscellanies in prose 
and verse written almost exclusively by the trio 
of literary partners, in Sands's library at Ho- 
boken. Mr. Verplanck had a curious habit of 
balancing himself on the back legs of a chair 
with his feet placed on two others, and occupy- 
ing this novel position he dictated his portion 
of the three volumes to Bryant and Sands, who 
alternately acted as his scribe. In 1832 the poet 
was again associated with Sands in a brace of 



50 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

volumes entitled " Tales of the Glauber Spa," to 
which Paulding, Leggett, and Miss Sedgwick 
were also contributors. In 1839 Mr. Bryant made 
a most admirable selection from the American 
poets, which was published by the Harpers in 
two volumes during the following year. At the 
same time they brought out a similar collection 
from the British poets, edited by Mr. Halleck. 

So far back as 1827, Washington Irving writes 
from Spain to his friend Henry Brevoort of the 
growing fame of Bryant and Halleck. He says, 
" I have been charmed with what I have seen of 
the writings of Bryant and Halleck. Are you 
acquainted with them ? I should like to know 
something of them personally. Their vein of 
thinking is quite above that of ordinary men 
and ordinary poets, and they are masters of 
the magic of poetical language." Four years 
later, Mr. Bryant, in a letter to Irving, informs 
him of the publication, in New York, of a vol- 
ume comprising all his poems which lie thought 
worth printing, and expresses a desire for their 
republication by a respectable English house. 
In order to anticipate their reproduction by any 
other, he requested Mr. Irving's kind aid in 
securing their publication. They appeared, with 
an introduction by Irving, in London in 1832. 
Professor Wilson said, in a periodical distin- 
guished for its contempt of mediocrity: "Bry- 
ant's poetry overflows with natural religion — 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. $1 

with what Wordsworth calls ' the religion of the 
gods.' The reverential awe of the irresistible 
pervades the verses entitled ' Thanatopsis ' and 
' Forest Hymn,' imparting to them a sweet so- 
lemnity, which must affect all thinking hearts." 
Another British periodical, very chary of its 
praise of anything American, remarked: "The 
verses of Mr. Bryant come as assuredly from the 
' well of English undefiled ' as the finer compo- 
sitions of Wordsworth ; indeed the resemblance 
between the two living authors might justify a 
much more invidious comparison." 

Irving drew the following picture of the poetry 
of this distinguished American whom his own 
country delighted to honour : " Bryant's writings 
transport us into the depths of the solemn prim- 
eval forest, to the shore of the lovely lake, the 
banks of the wild nameless stream, or the brow 
of the rocky upland, rising like a promontory 
from amidst a wide ocean of foliage, while they 
shed around us the glories of a climate fierce in 
its extremes but splendid in all its vicissitudes." 
Dana has expressed his opinion of Bryant's 
poetry in equally admiring terms, and Halleck 
said to the writer, after repeating the whole of 
one of Bryant's later poems, " The Planting of 
the Apple Tree,"* "His genius is almost the 

* " I was most agreeably surprised, as well as flattered, 
the other day to receive from General Wilson, who has col- 
lected the poetical writings of Halleck, and is engaged in 



52 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

only instance of a high order of thought becom- 
ing popular ; not that the people do not prize 
literary vvortli, but because they are unable to 
comprehend obscure poetry. Bi-yant's pieces 
seem to be fragments of one and the same poem, 
and require only a common plot to constitute 
a unique epic." 

Since the appearance of the first English edi- 
tion of Bryant's poems, many others, mostly 
unauthorized, have been published in Great 
Britain, with but slight, if any, pecuniary ad- 
vantage to their author. With one of these, 
vi^hich I bought at an English railway-stand for 
a shilling, and brought back with me to present 
to the poet in October, 1855, he appeared much 
amused, as it contained a villainous portrait of 
himself which looked, he said, "more like Jack 
Ketch than a respectable poet." Many Ameri- 
can editions of his poetical writings have ap- 
peared, from which Mr. Bryant derived a con- 
siderable amount of copyright, notwithstanding 
the remark he once made to the writer: "I 
should have starved if I had been obliged to 
depend upon my poetry for a living;" and at 



preparing his Life and Letters for the press, a copy in the 
poet's handwriting of some verses of mine entitled "The 
Planting of the Apple Tree," which he had taken the pains 
to transcribe, and which General Wilson had heard him 
repeat from memory in his own fine manner." — Bryanfs 
Address on Halleck, 1869. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 53 

the same time quoted the words of Goldsmith, 
"Could a man live by poetry, it were not un- 
pleasant employment to be a poet." Of one of 
these editions, known as the Red-line, five 
thousand copies were sold in 1870, the year in 
which it appeared ; and another beautiful illus- 
trated edition, issued in 1877, was exhausted 
in the course of a few months. Since Bryant's 
death, a complete edition of all his poetical and 
prose writings has appeared in four handsome 
octavo volumes. 

Intensely American in his feelings, the love of 
home and of his native land being among his 
most cherished sentiments, Mr. Bryant, like all 
truly cultivated and liberal minds, possessed an 
enlarged appreciation of the poetical associations 
of other lands. The inspirations of the East, the 
romantic history of Spain, the lofty and pictur- 
esque mountains of Mexico, the balmy breezes 
and sunshine of the island of Cuba — all had an 
enchantment and charm for his most apprecia- 
tive genius. The range of his poetic gift em- 
braced with comprehensive sympathy the prog- 
ress and struggles of humanity, seeking its vin- 
dication in a universal and enlightened liberty, 
— the beauties and harmonies of nature in her 
many forms, and the inspirations of art in its 
truthfulness to nature ; and all these find their 
legitimate expression in productions of his 
muse. 



54 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

In his botanical knowledge of plants and trees 
as displayed in his poetical writings, and in his 
habit of dissecting wild-flowers gathered in his 
walks, Bryant surpassed all poets of whom the 
writer has any knowledge, with the single ex- 
ception of Sir Walter Scott. I recall at this dis- 
tant day the surprise with which I saw him not- 
ing down the peculiar little wild-flowers and 
herbs that were growing round a rocky spot we 
passed during a spring-day ramble together in 
Central Park, also his familiarity with the vari- 
ous trees — native and foreign. I think Bryant 
is fairly entitled to be called the poet of the 
woods and fields. 

Between the years 1834 and 1867 Mr. Bryant 
made six visits to the Old World.* In 1872 still 
another long journey was undertaken by him — 
a second voyage to Cuba, his tour being ex- 
tended to the city of Mexico. The poet was 
fond of travel, and seemed as unwilling as that 
ancient worthy, Ulysses, whose wanderings he 
not long ago put in such pleasing English verse, 



* In a letter to the writer Mr. Bryant says, " I went six 
times to Europe. In 1834 with my wife and family, re- 
turning in 1836; in 1845 ; but I did not visit the Shetland 
Islands till four years later, in 1849. My fourth visit was 
in 1852, when I went to the Holy Land. In 1857 I made 
a fifth voyage to Europe with my wife and younger daugh- 
ter. In 1867 I went over the sixth time. In both these 
last voyages I visited Spain." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 55 

to let his faculties rest in idleness. His letters 
to the Evening Post, embracing his observations 
and opinions of Cuba and the Old World, were 
collected and published after his third visit to 
Europe in 1849, and were entitled "The Letters 
of a Traveller." A few years later, after re- 
crossing the Atlantic for the fifth time, he put 
forth in book form his letters from Spain and 
the East. These charming volumes, " born from 
his travelling thigh," as Ben Jonson quaintly 
expressed it, are written in a style of English 
prose distinguished for its purity and directness. 
The genial love of nature and the lurking ten- 
dency to humor which they everywhere betray 
prevent their severe simplicity from running into 
hardness, and give them a freshness and occa- 
sional glow in spite of their prevailing propriety 
and reserve. The reception which Mr. Bi-yant al- 
ways met with among literary men of distinction, 
especially in Great Britain, was a direct testi- 
mony to his fine qualities. The poets Words- 
worth and Rogers particularly paid to him most 
cordial and friendly attention. 

Bryant's sympathy with painting and poetry 
was reciprocated by their votaries — though hap- 
pily not in a posthumous form — in a novel and 
most beautiful manner, by a tribute paid to the 
poet on the anniversary of his seventieth birth- 
day. I refer to the offering of paintings and 
poems made to Mr. Bryant on the evening of 



$6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

November 5, 1864, — which was selected for the 
festival, — by the painters and poets of America, 
who cherished a love and veneration for one 
standing as a higli-priest at the altar of nature, 
singing its praises in most harmonious numbers, 
and encouraging art in all its growing forms. 
An appropriate place for the offering was the 
Century Club of New York, of which but four 
of the one hundred founders are now living. 
On the occasion of the festival — a memorable 
one not only in the annals of the society itself, 
but in the history of American art and letters, 
Bancroft delivered the congratulatory address in 
most touching and eloquent words, and was fol- 
lowed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard H. 
Dana, Jr., and William M. Evarts, in equally 
felicitous addresses. Miss Sedgwick, Mrs. Sher- 
wood, the elder Dana, Edward Everett, Halleck, 
Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Willis, and others 
who were unable to be presefit, sent poems and 
epistles of affectionate greeting. Mr. Everett 
wrote: "I congratulate the Century Club on 
the opportunity of paying this richly-earned 
tribute of respect and admiration to their veter- 
an, and him on the well-deserved honour. Hap- 
py the community that has the discernment to 
appreciate its gifted sons ; happy the poet, the 
artist, the scholar, who is permitted to enjoy, in 
this way, a foretaste of posthumous commemo- 
ration and fame !" Halleck, from a sick-cham- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. S7 

ber, sent these words : "Though far off in body, 
I shall be near him in spirit, repeating the hom- 
age which, with heart, voice, and pen, I have, 
during more than forty years of his threescore 
and ten, delighted to pay him." Longfellow in 
his letter said: "I assure you nothing would 
give me greater pleasure than to do honour to 
Bryant at all times and in all ways, both as a 
poet and a man. He has written noble verse 
and led a noble life, and we are all proud of 
him." Whittier in felicitous stanzas, written, 
be it remembered, in the third year of the war, 
exclaims : 

" I praise not here the poet's art, 
The rounded fitness of his song : 
Who weighs him from his life apart 
Must do his nobler nature wrong. 

"When Freedom hath her own again, 
Let happy lips his songs rehearse ; 
His life is now his noblest strain, 
His manhood better than his verse, 

" Thank God ! his hand on nature's keys 
Its cunning keeps at life's full span ; 
But dimmed and dwarfed, in times like these, 
The poet seems beside the Man." 

Other poetical tributes were addressed to Mr. 
Bryant by Boker, Buchanan Read, Mrs. Howe, 
Mrs. Sigourney, Holmes, Street, Tuckerman, and 
Bayard Taylor ; but the feature of the festival 



58 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

was the presentation to the venerable poet, in an 
eloquent address by the President of the National 
Academy, of upward of two-score oil-paintings 
— gifts of the artist-members of the Century 
Club, including Church, Darley, Durand, Gif- 
ford, Huntington, and Eastman Johnson. 

Shelley, in his "Defence of Poetry," asserts 
that " No living poet ever arrived at the fullness 
of his fame : the jury which sits in judgement 
upon a poet, belonging, as he does, to all time, 
must be composed of his peers, it must be em- 
pannelled by Time from the selectest of the wise 
of many generations." Does not the continual 
sale of the beloved Bryant's poems, on which 
criticism and panegyric are alike unneeded, and 
on which the American world has pronounced a 
judgement of unanimous admiration, prove him 
to be an exception to the rule laid down by the 
dictum of the gifted Shelley ? 

As promised in his " Inscription for the En- 
trance of a Wood," that to him who shall enter 
and " view the haunts of Nature" " the calm shade 
shall bring a kindred calm," so did he truly 
seem to have a quietude of spirit, a purity and 
elevation of thought, a "various language" of 
expression, which held him at once in subtle 
sympathy with nature and in ready communion 
with the minds of men. George William Curtis 
writes: "What Nature said to Iiim was plainly 
spoken and clearly heard and perfectly repeated. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 59 

His art was exquisite. It was absolutely unsus- 
pected ; but it served its truest purpose, for it 
removed every obstruction to full and complete 
delivery of his message." 

To Bryant the English literary world has not 
assigned so lofty a position as a poet. The higli- 
est praise appeared at the period of his death 
in \h.& Academy : "The sober dignity natural to 
Bryant was sustained by the consciousness that 
all his life he was one of the first poets of his 
age and country." Another authority said : 
"The marvellous boy grew up to be not marvel- 
lous, but a very melodious and accomplished 
man." The eminent jurist and scholar, who 
bears the honoured name, and not unworthily, of 
Coleridge, during his recent visit to the United 
States, in addressing the students of a Pennsyl- 
vania college, said : " You may be surprised at 
the name I sliall select from your American poets 
when I tell you to learn Bryant. I do not say 
Longfellow, because, although he is a sweet and 
noble and delightful poet, he is not American — 
I mean that his poetry might just as well have 
been written in England, or Italy, or Germany, or 
France, as in America ; but Mr. Bryant's poetry 
is full of the characteristics of his own country, 
as well as noble, natural, and invigorating." 

In December, 1867, Mr. Bryant responded, in 
a beautiful letter, to an invitation of the alumni 
of Williams College to read a poem at their 



6o BRYANT AMD HIS FRIENDS. 

next meeting. The brief letter of declination is 
poetical in its sympathy, and expresses, with 
pathos, not the decline of the powers of a mind 
yet vigourous, but a conscientious distrust of 
reaching that degree of excellence which his 
admirers might expect from his previous poems : 

" You ask me for a few lines of verse to be read at 
your annual festival of the alumni of Williams College. 
I am ever ill at occasional verses. Such as it is, my 
vein is not of that sort. I find it difficult to satisfy 
myself. Besides, it is the December of life with me ; I 
try to keep a few flowers in pots — mere remembrances 
of a more genial season which is now with the things 
of the past. If I have a carnation or two for Christ- 
mas, I think myself -fortunate. You write as if I had 
nothing to do, in fulfilling your request, but to go out 
and gather under the hedges and by the brooks a bou- 
quet of flowers that spring spontaneously, and throw 
upon your table. If I am to try, what would you say 
if it proved to be only a little bundle of devil-stalks 
and withered leaves, which my dim sight had mistaken 
for fresh, green sprays and blossoms.? So I must 
excuse myself as well as I can, and content myself with 
wishing a very pleasant evening to the foster-children 
of old 'Williams' who meet on New Year's Day, and 
all manner of prosperity and honour to the excellent 
institution of learning in which they were nurtured." 

On the evening of the 17th of May, 1870, Mr. 
Bryant delivered an address before the New 
York Historical Society, his subject being the 
"Life and Writings of Gulian C. Verplanck." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 6 1 

The venerable poet spoke of his friend, as in 
previous years he had spoken of their contem- 
poraries, Thomas Cole, the painter, and the 
authors Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, 
and Fitz-Greene Halleck. These charming ora- 
tions, together with various addresses, including 
those made at the unveiling of the Shakespeare, 
Scott, and Morse statues in the Central Park, 
were published in 1872 in a volume worthy of 
being possessed by all Bryant's admirers. 

The literary life which began nearly seventy 
years ago was crowned by his translations of 
Homer. Dryden began his pleasing transla- 
tion at sixty-seven, but the American singer 
was more than threescore and ten when he set 
himself to the formidable task of adding another 
to the many translations of the "Iliad" and 
"Odyssey." The former poem occupied most of 
his leisure hours for three years, and the latter 
about two ; being completed when Mr. Bryant 
was well advanced in his seventy-seventh year. 
The opinion has been pronounced by competent 
critics that these will hold their own with the 
translation by Pope, Chapman, Newman, and the 
late Earl Derby, of which latter Halleck said to 
the writer that "it was an admirable translation 
of the 'Iliad,' with the poetry omitted !"* 

* Of Mr. Bryant's translations of the "Iliad" and the 
" Odyssey" the AthencBum remarlcs : "These translations 
are with Mr. Bryant, as with Lord Derby, the work of the 



62 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

To the breakfast-table at Roslyn I remember 
that Mr. Bryant one day brought some pages in 
manuscript, being his morning's work on Homer; 
for, like Scott, he was always an early riser, and 
by that excellent habit he gained some hours 
each day. That Bryant, Bayard Taylor, and Long- 
fellow should have, during the past two decades, 
simultaneously appeared as translators of Homer, 
Goethe, and Dante, and that their work should 
compare favorably with any previous renderings 
into English of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," 
of Faust and of the " Divina Commedia," is cer- 
tainly a striking illustration of advancing liter- 
ary culture in the New World. 

During Longfellow's work on Dante he spoke 
to me about Bryant's having taken up the trans- 
lating of Homer at sevent)^-two for occupation 
of mind, and remarked that he "found that 
translating was like floating with the tide." He 
agreed with what Bryant said to me, that old 
men should keep the mind occupied, to preserve 
it, and introduced the incident of the old horse 



ripened scholarship and honorable leisure of age, and the 
impulse is natural to compare the products of the two 
minds. Mr. Bryant's translations seem less laboriously 
rounded and ornate, but perhaps even more forceful and 
vigorous, than Lord Derby's ;" while the London Times 
expresses the judgement that "his performance fell flat on 
the ears of an educated audience, after the efforts of Lord 
Derby and others in the same direction." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 63 

who fell down the moment that he stopped! At 
another time, speaking of Coleridge's inkstand, 
— a little souvenir that I had been fortunate 
enough to secure for him, — Mr. Longfellow said : 
" This memento of the poet recalls to my recol- 
lection that Theophilus Parsons, subsequently 
eminent in Massachusetts jurisprudence, paid 
me for a dozen of my early pieces, that appeared 
in his United States Literary Gazette, with a copy 
of Coleridge's poems, which I still have in my 
possession. Mr. Bryant contributed the 'Forest 
Hymn,' 'The Old Man's Funeral,' and many 
other poems, to the same periodical, and thought 
he was well paid by receiving two dollars apiece 
— a price, by the way, which he himself placed 
upon the poems, and at least double the amount 
of my honorarium. Truly, times have changed 
with us litterateurs during the last half-century." 
In 1873 Mr. Bryant's name appeared as the 
editor of "Picturesque America," a handsome 
illustrated quarto published by the Appletons. 
Another prose work with which he was associated 
is a" History of the United States," published 
by the Scribners, the second volume having been 
completed shortly before Mr. Bryant's death, the 
residue of the work, since completed, remaining 
in the hands of its associate author, Sidney 
Howard Gay. The poet's latest prose work 
was a new edition of Shakespeare, undertaken 
in 1875, and with which Mr. Duyckinck was 



64 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

connected as an associate editor. It was com- 
pleted by the literary partners, but as yet has 
not been published. 

To the readers of this memoir a topic of espe- 
cial interest will be Mr. Bryant's connection with 
the volume in connection with which it was origi- 
nally prepared, in July, 1878, — "A Library of Poe- 
try and Song." This connection began in 1870, 
with the origination of the book, in its octavo form, 
and continued with constant interest, through 
the reconstruction and enlargement of the work 
in its more elaborate quarto form, until its com- 
pletion in 1878. His own words best show how 
it happened that Bryant became the sponsor of 
this book, which in its various editions has al- 
ready taken his name into more than a hundred 
thousand American homes. " At the request of 
the publishers," he says, " I undertook to write 
an introduction to the present work, and in pur- 
suance of this design I find that I have come 
into a somewhat closer personal relation with 
the book. In its progress it has passed entirely 
under my revision. ... I have, as requested, 
exercised a free hand both in excluding and in 
adding matter according to my judgement of 
what was best adapted to the purposes of the 
enterprise." Every poem took its place after 
passing under Mr. Bryant's clear eye. Many 
were dropped out by him ; more were suggested, 
found, often copied out by him for addition. In 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 6$ 

the little notes accompanying his frequent for- 
warding of matter to the publishers, he casually- 
included many interesting points and hints of 
criticism or opinion : " I send also some extracts 
from an American poet, who is one of our best 
— Richard H. Dana." " I would request that 
more of the poems of Jones Very be inserted. 
I think them quite remarkable." *' Do not, I 
pray you, forget Thomson's ' Castle of Indo- 
lence,' the first canto of which is one of the most 
magnificent things in the language, and alto- 
gether free from the faults of style which deform 
his blank verse." " The lines are pretty enough, 
though there is a bad rhyme — foes and clothes ; 
but I have seen a similar one in Dryden — clothes 
pronounced as does — and I think I have seen the 
same thing in Whittier." 

Mr. Bryant was not a man given to humorous 
turns, yet he was not deficient in the sense of 
the comical. In forwarding some correction 
for an indexed name, he writes : " It is difficult 
always to get the names of authors right. 

Please read the inclosed, and see that Mrs. 

be not put into a pair of breeches." 

In specifying some additional poems of Sted- 
man's for insertion, he says: " I think ' Alectryon ' 
a very beautiful poem. It is rather long. . . . 
'The Old Admiral' should go in — under the 
head of ' Patriotism,' I think; or better, under 
that of ' Personal.' ' The Door Step ' is a poem 



66 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

of 'Love;' but it is pretty enough for any- 
where," etc. ''I do not exactly like the poem 
'To a Girl in her Thirteenth Year,' on account 
of the bad rhymes; nor am I quite pleased with 
Praed's 'I Remember, I Remember,' printed just 
after Hood's — it seems to me a little flippant, 
which is Praed's fault." The scrupulous care 
which Mr. Bryant exercised in keeping the com- 
pilation clean and pure was exemplified in his 
habitual name for it in correspondence and 
conversation — " The Family B.ook ; " "The Fam- 
ily Library." Rewrites: "I have made more 
suggestions for the omission of poems in the hu- 
morous department than in any other ; several 
of them being deficient in the requisite literary 
merit. As to the convivial poems, the more I 
think of it the more I am inclined to advise their 
total omission." 

When the work appeared in 1870, it met with 
an instant and remarkable popular welcome, 
more than twenty thousand copies having been 
sold during the first six months, which, for a 
book costing five dollars in its least expensive 
style, was certainly unusual. In 1876 it was 
determined to give the work a thorough revi- 
sion, although it had been from time to time 
benefiting by the amendments sent by Mr. 
Bryant or suggested by use. Mr. Bryant took 
a keen interest in this enlargement and re- 
construction, and, as stated in the Publisher's 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 6^ 

Preface to the quarto edition, it "entailed upon 
him much labour, in conscientious and thorough 
revision of all the material — cancelling, inserting, 
suggesting, even copying out with his own hand 
many poems not attainable save from his private 
library; in short, giving tlie work not only the 
sanction of his widely honoured name, but also 
the genuine influence of his fine poetic sense, his 
unquestioned taste, his broad and scholarly ac- 
quaintance with literature." Both the octavo 
and the quarto editions now contain his much- 
admired Introduction, in the form of an essay 
on "The Poets and Poetry of the English Lan- 
guage." Of this, Edmund Clarence Stedman, in 
an admirable paper on Br3'-ant as "The Man of 
Letters," contributed to The Evenifig Post after 
the poet's death, says: "This is a model of 
expressive English prose, as simple as that of 
the Spectator essayists and far more to the pur- 
pose. Like all his productions, it ends when the 
writer's proper work is done. The essay, it may 
be added, contains in succinct language the 
poet's own views of the scope and method of 
song, a reflection of the instinct governing his 
entire poetical career." 

Bryant's prose has always received high com- 
mendation. A little collection of extracts from 
his writings has been compiled for use in schools, 
as a model of style. The secret of it, so far as 
genius can communicate its secrets, may be 



68 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

found in a letter addressed by Mr. Bryant to 
one of the editors of the Christian Intelligencer, in 
reply to some questions, and published in the 
issue of that journal, July ii, 1878: 

RosLYN, Long Island, July 6, 1863. 

" It seems to me that in style we ought first, and 
above all things, to aim at clearness of expression. 
An obscure style is, of course, a bad style. In writing 
we should always consider not only whether we have 
expressed the thought in a manner which meets our 
own comprehension, but whether it will be understood 
by readers in general. 

" The quality of style next in importance is attrac- 
tiveness. It should invite and agreeably detain the 
reader. To acquire such a style, I know of no other 
way than to contemplate good models and consider 
the observations of able critics. The Latin and Greek 
classics of which you speak are certainly important 
helps in forming a taste in respect to style, but to at- 
tain a good English style something more is necessary 
— the diligent study of good English authors. I 
would recur for this purpose to the elder worthies of 
our literature — to such writers as Jeremy Ta)dor and 
Barrow and Thomas Fuller — whose works are perfect 
treasures of the riches of our language. Many mod- 
ern writers have great excellences of style, but few are 
without some deficiency. . . . 

" I have but one more counsel to give in regard to 
the formation of a style in composition, and that is to 
read the poets — the nobler and grander ones of our 
language. In this way warmth and energy is com- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 69 

municated to the diction and a musical flow to the 
sentences. 

" I have here treated the subject very briefly and 
meagrely, but I have given you my own method and 
the rules by which I have been guided through many 
years, mostly passed in literary labours and studies." 

Quite recently the writer has seen a document 
which, in these days of international copyright 
agitation, is of some interest. It runs thus; 
" The British a?id American Copyright League is an 
association having for its object the passage of 
an International Copyright Law in America and 
in England, and in favor of such other countries 
as are willing to reciprocate, which shall secure 
to authors the same control over their own pro- 
ductions as is accorded to inventors, who, if 
they so elect, can patent their inventions in all 
the countries of Europe. This is the first organ- 
ized attempt that has been made to bring about 
this very desirable result. As a preliminary step, 
it is proposed to get the approval of those im- 
mediately interested, and your signature to the 
inclosed circular is therefore respectfully re- 
quested." This is signed "William C. Bryant, 
Secretary of the British and American Copy- 
right League," The "inclosed circular" is a 
brief declaration of approval of the efforts of 
the League to secure the passage of an interna- 
tional copyright law, and bears the signatures 
of Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, Gar- 



70 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

rison, Beecher, Holmes, Mrs. Stowe, Miss Alcott, 
Prof. Dana, Howells, Aldrich, and other well- 
known authors. This excellent beginning was 
made in 1873, but for some reason was not 
pushed to any practical outcome. It was, how- 
ever, one of the signs of the change now becom- 
ing manifest. 

From a letter written by Bryant as long ago 
as 1858, we take the following extract alluding 
to the same subject : " You ask my opinion 
concerning the protection of the property of 
authors and artists from pillage. Holding that 
this kind of property rests on as just a founda- 
tion as any other, I have ever detested the 
churlishness which refuses to protect it for a 
foreigner, and have thought that whatever other 
countries might do, our own country ought to pro- 
tect it within its limits for all, without discrimi- 
nation." Ten years later the poet writes : " Our 
National Legislature cannot refuse, if the subject 
is assiduously kept before them, to apply to 
literary property the same principle which just 
laws in every country apply to other property 
under like circumstances. Take the example of 
a whaling voyage and its products. An adven- 
turer in this business goes into the deep sea, 
which is free and open to all mankind; he strikes 
with the harpoon whales which belong to all, 
and before they are caught are no man's property 
more than another's; he brings to the market a 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



cargo, of oil and spermaceti, and the law recog- 
nizes it as his property, whether he be an Ameri- 
can or an Englishman, a Swede, a Dane, or a 
Hollander. Although the material of his cargo 
was in its original state the common property 
of mankind, his enterprise; skill, and labour have 
made it his — absolutely his by universal consent. 
An author finds the materials of his productions 
in the great treasury of ideas and words which 
are the common property of all. But when his 
genius, skill, and labour have given them a pecu- 
liar form in a literary work, the product is hts as 
much as the whaler's cargo, and his right to it 
should be equally secured by law. There is not 
a fisherman who comes into our market who 
does not bring with him an illustration of the 
principle on which the rights of literary property 
are founded." 

On Mr. Bryant's eightieth birthday he received 
a congratulatory letter with thousands of signa- 
tures, sent from every State and Territory of 
his native land, followed soon after by the pre- 
sentation, in Chickering Hall, New York, in the 
presence of a large and appreciative audience, 
of a superb silver vase, the gift of many hundred 
admirers in various portions of the country. 
This exquisite and valuable specimen of Ameri- 
can silver work is now in the possession of the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Standing before 



72 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

it, the spectator may fitJy recall those noble lines 
of Keats upon a Grecian urn : 

" When old age shall this generation waste 
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe 
Than ours, a friend to men : to whom thou sayest, 
' Beauty is truth, truth beauty ; that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' " 

A few months later, the venerable poet present- 
ed to the citizens of Roslyn a new hall and public 
reading-room, having previously given one to 
his native town. It was the wish of his fellow- 
citizens that the handsome hall should be named 
in honor of Mr. Bryant; but as he. proposed 
that it should be known simply as *'The Hall," 
that title was bestowed upon it by popular 
acclamation. 

The "Centennial Ode," written by Bryant for 
the opening of the International Exposition at 
Philadelphia, is worthy of the great fame of its 
author. '' The Flood of Years," another of his 
later compositions, and one of his noblest, elicit- 
ed from a prominent foreign journal the follow- 
ing mention: "The venerable American poet, 
who was born before Keats, and who has seen 
so many tides of influence sweep over the litera- 
ture of his own country and of England, pre- 
sents us here with a short but very noble and 
characteristic poem, which carries a singular 
weight with it as embodying the reflection of a 
very old man of genius on the mutability of all 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 73 

things, and the hurrying tide of years that cover 
the past as with a flood of waters. In a vein 
that I'eminds us of ' Thanatopsis,' the grand 
symphonic blank verse of wliich was published 
no less than sixty-one years ago, Mr, Bryant re- 
views the mortal life of man as the ridge of a 
wave ever hurrying to oblivion the forms that 
appear on its surface for a moment." In this 
worthy companion to " Thanatopsis," written in 
his eighty-second year, the poet strikes the old 
familiar key-note that he took so successfully in 
his greatest poem in 1812, in "The Ages" in 
1821, and again in "Among the Trees" in 1874. 
A gentleman who had been recently bereaved 
was so struck by the unquestioning faith in im- 
mortality expressed in the concluding lines of 
this poem that he wrote to the poet, asking if 
they i-epresented his own belief. Mr. Bryant 
answered him in the following note, dated Cum- 
mington, August 10, 1876: "Certainly I believe 
all that is said in the lines you have quoted. If 
I had not, I could not have written them. I be- 
lieve in the everlasting life of the soul ; and it 
seems to me that immortality would be but an 
imperfect gift without the recognition in the life 
to come of those who are dear to us here." The 
passage referred to is as follows : 

"A belt of darkness seems to bar the way, 
Long, low and distant, where the Life that Is 
Touches the Life to come. The Flood of Years 



74 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Rolls toward it, nearer and nearer. It must pass 
That dismal barrier. What is there beyond? 
Hear what the wise and good have said: Beyond 
That belt of darkness still the years roll on 
More gently, but with not less mighty sweep. 
They gather up again and softly bear 
All the sweet lives that late were overwhelmed 
And lost to sight — all that in them was good, 
Noble, and truly great and worthy of love — 
The lives of infants and ingenuous youths, 
Sages and saintly women who have made 
Their households happy — all are raised and borne 
By that great current on its onward sweep. 
Wandering and rippling with caressing waves 
Around green islands, fragrant with the breath 
Of flowers that never wither. So they pass, 
From stage to stage, along the shining course 
Of that fair river broadening like a sea. 
As its smooth eddies curl along their way. 
They bring old friends together ; hands are clasped 
In joy unspeakable ; the mother's arms 
Again are folded round the child she loved 
And lost. Old sorrows are forgotten now. 
Or but remembered to make sweet the hour 
That overpays them ; wounded hearts that bled 
Or broke are healed forever. In the room 
Of this grief-shadowed Present there shall be 
A Present in whose reign no grief shall gnaw 
The heart, and never shall a tender tie 
Be broken — in whose reign the eternal Change 
That waits on growth and action shall proceed 
With everlasting Concord hand in hand." 

If the harmon}^ of the poet's career was sus- 
tained in his writings and his love of art, it was 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 75 

further manifested in the taste and affection 
which governed him in the selection of his 
homes. Like the historian Prescott, Bryant had 
three residences — a town-house and two country 
homes. One of these is near the picturesque 
village of Roslyn, Long Island, and commands a 
view which in its varied aspect takes in a min- 
gled scene of outspreading land and water. The 
mansion, embosomed in trees and vines, an am- 
ple dwelling-place situated at the top of the 
hills, was built by Richard Kirk in 1781. Mr. 
Bryant, who was ever mindful of the injunction 
given by the dying Scotch laird to his son, " Be 
aye sticking in a tree, Jock : it will be growing- 
while ye are sleeping," alternated recreations of 
tree planting and pruning and other rural occu- 
pations with his literary labour. Not extensive, 
but excellent in wide and judicious selections, 
was his library of several thousand volumes. 
The poet's knowledge of ancient and living lan- 
guages enabled him to add with advantage to 
his collection of books the works of the best 
French, German, Italian, and Spanish authors. 
Among his poems may be found admirable 
translations from these languages, as well as 
from the Greek and Latin. 

The poet's country-seat at Roslyn, called 
" Cedarmere," was the resort of many men dis- 
tinguished in art and literature, of travellers and 
statesmen, who went thither to pay their respects 



y^ BRYAN7' AND HIS FRIENDS. 

to the sage, philosopher, and author. They were 
always welcomed, and enjoyed the purity of 
taste and simplicity of manner which presided 
over the mansion. Here the venerable host con- 
tinued to the last to enjoy the society of his 
friends ; and here much of his best literary 
work was done after his purchase of the place 
in 1845. He was accustomed to spend most of 
the time there from May to the end of Novem- 
ber of each year, excepting the months of Au- 
gust and September, which for more than a 
decade were given to the old Homestead at 
Cummington. 

Cedarmere is an extensive estate, and rich in 
a great variety of trees. As I was walking on 
a sunny October afternoon with the poet through 
his loved domain, he pointed out a Spanish 
chestnut-tree laden with fruit, and, springing 
lithely on a fence despite his seventy-six sum- 
mers, caught an open burr hanging from one 
of the lower branches, opened it, and, jumping 
down with the agility of a youth, handed to his 
city guest the contents, consisting of two as 
large chestnuts as I ever saw in Spain. The 
Madeira and pecan nuts were also successfully 
cultivated by him at Cedarmere. During an- 
other walk, Mr. Bryant gave a jump and caught 
the branch of a tree with his hands, and, after 
swinging backward and forward several times 
with his feet raised, he swung himself over a 
fence without touching it. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 77 

About a quarter of a mile from the mansion, 
he pointed out a black-walnut tree, which was 
planted by Adam Smith, and first made its ap- 
pearance above ground in 1713. It had attained 
a girth of twenty-five feet and an immense 
breadth of branches. It was the comfortable 
home of a small army of squirrels, and every 
year strewed the ground around its gigantic 
stem with an abundance of " heavy fruit." The 
tree is alluded to in one of Mr. Bryant's poems : 

"On my cornice linger the ripe black grapes ungathered; 
Children fill the groves with the echoes of their glee, 
Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when beside 
them 
Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-walnut tree." 

The taste displayed by the poet in the selec- 
tion and adornment of his residence at Roslyn 
was more than equalled by the affection and 
veneration which in 1864 prompted him to pur- 
chase the old Bryant Homestead and estate at 
Cummington, which had some thirty years pre- 
viously passed out of the family into other 
hands. The mansion is situated among the 
Hampshire hills, and is a spot that nature has 
surrounded with scenes calculated to awaken the 
early dreams of the poet, and to fill his soul 
with purest inspiration. In the midst of such 
scenes the young singer received his earliest im- 
pressions, and in descriptions of them he has em- 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



bodied some of his most cherished and home- 
endearing poetry. To a friend who requested 
information about the home of his boyhood, Mr. 
Bryant in 1872 wrote as follows: 

" I am afraid that I cannot say much that will inter- 
est you or anybody else. A hundred years since this 
broad highland region lying between the Housatonic 
and the Connecticut was principally forest, and bore 
the name of Pontoosuc. In a few places settlers had 
cleared away woodlands and cultivated the cleared 
spots. Bears, catamounts, and deer were not uncom- 
mon here. Wolves were sometimes seen, and the 
woods were dense and dark, without any natural open- 
ings or meadows. My grandfather on the mother's 
side came up from Plymouth County, in Massachu- 
setts, when a young man, in the year 1773, and chose 
a farm on a commanding site overlooking an exten- 
sive prospect, cut down the trees on a part of it, and 
built a house of square logs with a chimney as large 
as some kitchens, within which I remember to have sat 
on a bench in my childhood. About ten j'^ears after- 
ward he purchased, of an original settler, the contigu- 
ous farm, now called the Bryant Homestead, and hav- 
ing built beside a little brook, not very far from a 
spring from which water was to be drawn in pipes, the 
house which is now mine, he removed to it with his 
family. The soil of this region was then exceedingly 
fertile, all the settlers prospered, and my grandfather 
among the rest. My father, a physician and surgeon, 
married his daughter, and after a while came to live 
with him on the homestead. He made some enlarge- 
ments of the house, in one part of which he-had his 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 79 

office, and in this, during my boyhood, were generally 
two or three students of medicine, who sometimes 
accompanied my father in his visits to his patients, 
always on horseback, which was the mode of travellinjT; 
at that time. To this place my father brought me in 
my early childhood, and I have scarce an early recol- 
lection which does not relate to it. 

" On the farm beside the little brook, and at a short 
distance from the house, stood the district school- 
house, of which nothing now remains but a little hol- 
low where was once a cellar. Here I received my 
earliest lessons in learning, except such as were given 
me by my mother, and here, when ten years old, I 
declaimed a copy of verses composed by me as a de- 
scription of a district school. The little brook which 
runs by the house, on the site of the old district 
school-house, was in after years made the subject of a 
little poem, entitled ' The Rivulet.' To the south of 
the house is a wood of tall trees clothing a declivity, 
and touching with its outermost boughs the grass of a 
moist meadow at the foot of the hill, which suggested 
the poem entitled 'An Inscription for the Entrance to 
a Wood.' 

" In the year 1835 the place passed out of the family, 
and at the end of thirty years I repurchased it, and 
made various repairs of the house and additions to its 
size. A part of the building which my father had 
added, and which contained his office, had in the mean 
time been detached from it, and moved off down a 
steep hill to the side of the Westfield River. I sup- 
plied its place by a new wing with the same external 
form, though of less size, in which is now my library. 
"The site of the house is uncommonly beautiful. 



8o BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Before it, to the east, the ground descends, first gradu- 
ally, and then rapidly, to the Westfield River flowing 
in a deep and narrow valley, from which is heard, after 
a copious rain, the roar of its swollen current, itself 
unseen. In the spring-time, when the frost-bound 
waters are loosened by a warm rain, the roar and crash 
are remarkably loud as the icy crust of the stream is 
broken, and the masses of ice are swept along by the 
flood over the stones with which the bed of the river 
is paved. Beyond the narrow valley of the Westfield 
the surface of the country rises again gradually, carry- 
ing the eye over a region of vast extent, interspersed 
with farm-houses, pasture- grounds, and wooded 
heights, where on a showery day you sometimes see 
two or three different showers, each watering its own 
separate district ; and in winter-time two or three 
different snow-storms dimly moving from place to 
place." 

" The soil of the whole of this highland region is 
disintegrated mica-slate, for the most part. It has 
its peculiar growth of trees, shrubs, and wild-flowers, 
differing considerably from those of the eastern part of 
the State. In autumn, the woods are peculiarly beau- 
tiful with their brightness and variety of hues. The 
higher farms of this region lie nearly two thousand 
feet above tide-water. The air is pure and healthful ; 
the summer temperature is most agreeable ; but the 
spring is coy in her approaches, and winter often 
comes before he is bidden. No venomous reptile 
inhabits any part of this region, as I think there is no 
tradition of a rattlesnake or copperhead having been 
seen here, " ; 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 8 I 

The serenity and dignity so manifest in Bry- 
ant's writings were notable also in his person. 
The poet was often depicted by pencil and pen. 
The phrenologists exhausted their skill upon his 
noble head, and the painters and engravers 
their art upon his face. The former believed him 
to approach the ideal of Spurzheim in his phre- 
nological developments, and the latter deemed 
him to possess the fine artistic features of Titian 
and of the Greek poet whom he translated. It 
is a consolation to age, when protected by a 
wise and orderly regulated life, that its inherent 
dignity supplies the want, if not the place, of 
youth, and that the veneration and serenity 
which surround it more than compensate for the 
passions which turbulence renders dangerous. 
To such an honored age as this Bryant attained; 
calm, circumspect, and sedate, he passed the 
perilous portals of Parnassus with his crown of 
laurel untarnished and unwithered by the baser 
breath that sometimes lurks like a poison within 
its leaves. He more resembled Dante in the 
calm dignity of his nature, though happily not 
in the violent and oppressive affliction of his life, 
than any other poet in history. 

Having passed, by more than three winters, 
what the Psalmist calls *'the days of our years," 
and escaped the " labour and sorrow" that are 
foreboded to the strength that attains four- 



S2 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

score, Bryant continued to perforna his daily 
editorial duties, to pursue his studies, and to 
give the world his much-prized utterances, with- 
out exhibiting any evidences of physical or 
mental decay, although for a good part of half a 
century he was under whip and spur, with the 
daily press for ever, as Scott expressed it, " clat- 
tering and thundering at his heels." On the 
evening of January 31, 1878, he walked out on 
the wildest night of the winter, when a blinding 
snow-storm kept many younger men at home, to 
address a meeting of the American Geographi- 
cal Society, and to take part in the cordial wel- 
come extended to the Earl of Dufferin, the 
accomplished Governor - General of Canada, 
When the president of the Society sent for a 
carriage and urged the aged poet, at the close of 
the meeting, to make use of it, he sturdily re- 
fused, saying that he preferred to walk home. 

The following noble ode written for Washing- 
ton's birthday, February 22, 1878, was, so far as 
I am aware, Mr. Bryant's latest poetical utter- 
ance (with the single exception of his brief poem 
on Cervantes, composed for the celebration by 
the Spanish residents of New York, in commem- 
oration of the anniversary of that great author's 
death, 23d April, 1616). A manuscript copy of 
the stanzas lay on Mr. Bryant's library-table 
when I assisted him up-stairs after the sad acci- 
dent on that sunny May afternoon : 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 83 

" Pale is the February sky, 

And brief the mid-day's sunny hours; 
The wind-swept forest seems to sigh 

For the sweet time of leaves and flowers. 

" Yet has no month a prouder day. 

Not even when the Summer broods 
O'er meadows in their fresh array, 
Or Autumn tints the glowing woods, 

" For this chill season now again 

Brings, in its annual round, the morn 
When, greatest of the sons of men, 
Our glorious Washington was born. 

" Lo, where, beneath an icy shield. 
Calmly the mighty Hudson flows! 
By snow-clad fell and frozen field 
Broadening the lordly river goes. 

" The wildest storm that sweeps through space, 
And rends the oak with sudden force, 
Can raise no ripple on his face 
Or slacken his majestic course. 

" Thus, 'mid the wreck of thrones, shall live 
Unmarred, undimmed, our hero's fame, 
And years succeeding years shall give 
Increase of honours to his name." 

Still later (May 15, 1878) Mr. Bryant wrote at 
Roslyn the following characteristic sentiment, 
contributed to a Decoration Day number of The 
Recorder. 

**In expressing my regard for the memory of 
those who fell in the late civil war, I cannot 



84 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

omit to say that, for one result of what they did 
and endured — namely, the extinction of slavery 
in this great republic — they deserve the imper- 
ishable gratitude of mankind. Their memory 
will survive many thousands of the generations 
of spring flowers which men will gather to-day 
on their graves. Nay, they will not be forgot- 
ten while the world has a written history." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 85 



CHAPTER III. 

Poet, whose footsteps trod the mystic ways 
That lead through common things to Nature's shrine; 

Whose heart throbbed rhythmic to the heart divine 
That bird, flower, forest, stream, and mountain sways; 

We, whose rapt sense thy lyre's full fervours raise 
From lowliest themes to absolute harmonies. 
Mourn that its sturdier strain unechoed dies. 

Quenched by the lute's sweet plaint and languorous lays. 

Anonymous. 

From a portfolio of the poet's private notes, 
letters, and autograph poems, extending over a 
period of two decades, — the earliest is dated 1857, 
the latest 1878, — I select a few paragraphs. 
Writing in May, i860, Mr. Bryant says : "You 
surprise me by the account of your visit to Irving 
and Paulding's ' Cockloft Hall,' near Newark. 
I was not aware that there was any such place, 
and always supposed it was a purely imaginary 
house. I now send you, as promised some days 

since, when we met at , my discourse on 

our friend Irving, delivered before the Historical 
Society last month." From Roslyn the poet 
writes in June, 1863 : " It gave me pleasure to hear 
from you at Vicksburg, and to learn of your con- 
fidence in its speedy capture by General Grant. 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



From Mr. Halleck I heard of your promotion to 
the command of your cavalry regiment, I like 
the tribute to your predecessor, Colonel Stewart, 
which he showed me, and shall find a place for it 
in the Post. I send you a copy of the poem you 
desire for your loyal and fair Southern friend." 
In September, 1868, Mr. Bryant writes: "My 
daughter being absent, I venture to thank you in 
her name for the copy in Mr. Halleck's hand- 
writing of my poem on the ' Planting of the Apple 
Tree.' It is valuable as an autograph of the 
poet ; but to me, and my daughter also, it will 
have an added value as an evidence of the kind 
estimate put by him on those verses of mine. I 
am sure he would not take the trouble to copy 
what he did not particularly like, and what you 
say of his having repeated the whole poem from 
memory makes me still more certain of this. 
These two circumstances, taken together, consti- 
tute one of the very highest compliments which 
any verses of mine have ever received; nor will 
you wonder that I am highly as well as unex- 
pectedly flattered by learning that one whose 
judgment in poetry I had regarded as almost in- 
fallible should have thought anything written by 
me worthy of being treasured in his memory." 

In November (1868) the poet writes : " I thank 
you for the handsome copy of Halleck's poems. 
I have several editions, but this is the only com- 
plete collection of his writings that I possess. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 87 

. . . You are right in supposing that Mr. Hal- 
leck received no compensation for anything 
written for the Evening Post. I am quite sure 
that this is so, for it has never been the practice 
of the paper to pay anything for verses, which 
are generally furnished to an extent beyond the 
space that can be spared for them. Moreover, in 
Mr. Coleman's time the newspapers paid nothing 
for contributions of any sort. . . . The idea of 
erecting a bronze statue of Halleck in the Cen- 
tral Park is one which I approve with all my 
heart ; but I am so little in town, and have so 
little time at my command, that I cannot con- 
sent to be the chairman of the executive com- 
mittee appointed to carry the 'plan into effect, 
although I have no objection to being put on the 
committee. Mr. Verplanck should be the chair- 
man. He was a special and life-long friend of 
Halleck, and a far better judge in matters con- 
nected with the fine arts than I can pretend to be." 
A month later Mr. Bryant writes : " I like the de- 
sign of the Halleck monument, a photograph of 
which you have been so kind as to send me. It 
is in good taste, as I think; and I am glad that the 
place of the poet's rest is now marked by so fit- 
ting a memorial. But I must be excused from 
delivering any address on the occasion of its 
erection. I have consented to read a paper be- 
fore the Historical Society on the writings of 
Halleck, and having done this, it appears to me 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS 



that I shall have fulfilled my duty to his memory, 
much as I cherished it. Some more eloquent 
speaker must perform the office of which you 
speak, at the burial-ground." 

Writing December 4, Bryant says : " No ac- 
count was published in the Evening Post of the 
dinner given to Halleck at the Century Club, at 
which I presided. Mr. George B, Butler was 
present, and a communication giving a brief ac- 
count of the dinner, written, as I was told, by him, 
appeared in i\\& /ot^rnal of Commerce. I recollect 
that in my introduction to the principal toast I 
spoke of him as occupying the same place in our 
literature that Horace does in Latin poetry, 
with the same gayetyand grace in his satire and 
the 'curious felicity' — if that be a correct trans- 
lation of curiosa felicitas — of his lyrical writings. 
Mr. Halleck claiming the privilege of sitting 
while he spoke, answered, I do not remember 
what : but I well remember how, and that was 
very happily, and in a manner which pleased us all. 
... I thank you for the likeness of Halleck at 
twenty-one. I see a slight resemblance in it to 
what he appeared afterwards, but a very slight 
one. When I first saw him in 1825, his physiog- 
nomy had matured into what it remained, essen- 
tially at least for the rest of his life." In May, 1870, 
the poet writes, in allusion to an ancient campaign 
document given to me by Mr. Verplanck : " I 
return the literary curiosity which you were so 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 89 

obliging as to send me. It is a curious list of the 
Knickerbockers of the city, the genuine descend- 
ants of the original founders of New Amsterdam, 
and the article was probably written to stir up 
that class to give their votes for a candidate 
who bore a genuine Dutch name. I am glad to 
know that Mr. Verplanck was able to speak so 
well of my translation of Homer." 

From Cummington the poet writes in Sep- 
tember, 187 1 : "Your letter has been sent to me 
at this place, where I have passed the greater 
part of this summer, and where, finding my- 
self left to pursue very quietly a literary task 
which I am desirous to see finished in season, I 
expect to remain for some time yet. I shall 
therefore be obliged to miss the pleasure of re- 
ceiving your friend, as it is not consistent with 
my plans to be in Roslyn within the time you 
mention, and the day of m}^ return to the neigh- 
bourhood of New York is quite uncertain." 
Three years later he writes from Roslyn : " I take 
this method of thanking you and Mrs. Wilson 
for the eightieth-birthday present which you have 
made me of a cactus plant brought from the 
tomb of Virgil at Naples. It has taken its place 
in the greenhouse here, where it will be tenderly 
cared for, on account of the old Roman poet." 

In the summer of 1876, at my request, Mr. Bry- 
ant, who succeeded Prof. Morse as chairman of 
the Halleck Statue Committee, sent the follow- 



90 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ing letter to the Park Commissioners : " It is very 
much desired by the committee appointed to see 
to the erection of a statute of the late Fitz-Greene 
Halleck, that it should not be placed in the Mall, 
where it would be scarcely observed among the 
more showy and imposing statues already there. 
Halleck was a New York poet in a special man- 
ner : his reputation was local, his poetry related 
mostly to local topics, and a place by itself would, 
it seems to me, agree better with such a reputa- 
tion than one among the foreign celebrities, of 
which there is a considerable number on the 
Mall. It would also have a pleasant effect if the 
visitor to the Park should be surprised in some 
picturesque nook of the grounds with the statue 
of the poet of New York Social Life. I believe 
that under the present regulations the statue 
cannot be placed in any other part of the Central 
Park than the Mall. I would respectfully sug- 
gest that an exception be made by the Commis- 
sioners for this single statue, assured as they 
must be that the same reasons for such a dispo- 
sition of it are not likely to be urged in any other 
case." A month later, in a note to the writer, the 
poet says : "I am sorry that the Park Commis- 
sioners do not see the propriety of allowing t?ie 
statue of Halleck to be placed in some particu- 
lar and characteristic nook of the Park. But 
their decision is made, and I suppose there is no 
contending against it." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



From half a dozen " notelets" relating to the 
Halleck statue sent to me by Mr. Bryant in 
April and May, 1877, I take a few sentences : 
"Dear General, I send you a letter just received 
in answer to mine, which I hardly understand. 
If the matter is to be taken out of the hands of 
the committee I must resign. . . . The order of 
exercises which you have sent me seems to be 
the right thing. Only erase 'His Honour' from 
before 'the Mayor,' for Mayor is enough, just as 
President is enough without ' His Excellency.' 
... I made a great blunder thinking the ap- 
pointment was for to-day. Shall I come to you, 
or you to me ? . . . I believe the devil has a 
spite against the Halleck statue. Here is a note 

I have just received from . You were 

hardly out of sight to-day when I opened it." 

"It will not be possible," the poet wrote at 
Roslyn in July, 1877, "for us to avail ourselves 
of your obliging invitation to visit you in your 
beautiful retreat on the island which you and 
Mrs. Wilson have chosen for your summer home. 
I have been, as usual, very busy, and now we are 
packing up for a few weeks at Cummington. 
My daughter joins me in thanks." Four months 
later Mr. Bryant writes : " I have your obliging- 
note of the 15th of this month. I am now, as 
you know, a very old man, and, as you may infer, 
cannot bear festivity as formerly. In the fulfil- 
ment of an engagement which dates back several 



92 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

months, the Goethe Club is to give me what is 
called a reception on Tuesday evening (to-mor- 
row). I have had my house in town put in order 
within a day or two, so that I can sleep there ; 
but old age is so sensitive that I cannot be out two 
nights together without feeling it unpleasantly, 
and I cannot afford to be unattentive to such ad- 
monitions. I must therefore trust to the in- 
dulgence of your committee to excuse me from 
being present at the banquet, though I consent 
that my name may appear in the list of those 
who pay this tribute to the genius of Mr. Story. 
I enclose a more formal letter of excuse to the 
committee," 

Having occasion to deliver an address on 
Millard Fillmore, and doubtful of my own judge- 
ment on one of the most important acts of my 
friend's administration, I applied to the poet for 
his opinion, and received the following answer, 
dated December 27, 1877 : 

" It is exceedingly probable that Mr. Fillmore, on 
succeeding to the functions of the President at General 
Taylor's death, acted by the advice of Mr. Webster in 
approving the fugitive-slave law. Mr. Webster had 
made a brief speech against the law, doubting its con- 
stitutionality, and suggesting that the return of fugitive 
slaves to their owners was not a matter for the Federal 
Government to meddle with, but a matter for the 
States to arrange among themselves. He, however, 
soon after came over to the support of the fugitive- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 93 

slave bill, and Mr. Ritchie, editor of the Uniott news- 
paper published at Washington, declared in its columns 
that there was no reward too high for a grateful coun- 
try to bestow upon the man who had come forward so 
magnanimously in favour of that important measure. 
While General Taylor lived there was no chance for 
the enactment of the fugitive-slave law. He set his 
face firmly against it, and directed against it the in- 
fluence of his administration. Mr. Clay, who brought 
it forward with two or three kindred projects, had be- 
come discouraged, and spoke of his discouragement. 
In the midst of the discussion on this measure. General 
Taylor, who had thought to settle the dispute respect- 
ing the immigration of the slave-holders to the Terri- 
tories taking with them their slaves by admitting the 
Territories at once as States of the Union, died, and 
with him the great obstruction to the passage of the 
fugitive-slave law was removed. It was naturally to 
be governed by the wishes of such eminent leaders of 
the party as Clay and Webster, and accordingly the 
influence of the Federal Administration was used in its 
favour; the bill received the votes of a majority in each 
House of Congress, and was duly approved by the 
acting President. I write from memory, without con- 
sulting any record of the time to which I refer ; but I 
believe that I am literally exact, for the events of that 
time made a strong impression upon me." 

The last brief note which I received from Mr. 
Bryant was written on the same April day, 1878, 
that he sent a letter to Dana, the friend of his 
youth, thus closing a correspondence which the 
venerable survivor informed me in August had 



94 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

been carried on uninterruptedly for more than 
fifty years. At the same time Mr. Dana said : 
" Bryant's literary career, if we assume it to 
have been begun at the date of his first publi- 
cation of * The Embargo' in 1808, extends over 
the unexampled period of threescore and ten 
years !" " You are fortunate," wrote the younger 
to the elder poet, "in your posterity, which are 
multiplying around you. As the old song goes, 
you go wooing and getting married in your 
grandchildren. . . The spring calls me to Ros- 
lyn. . . How beautiful the country is in this 
neighbourhood ! — the bright green grass, the 
young leaves of the trees, the blossoms in the 
grass and on the shrubs ! I long to be among 
them. Yours faithfully and immemorially." 

The following poem, which I understood was 
one of Mr. Bryant's youthful productions, is en- 
titled "The Farewell," and is not to be found 
in any of the numerous editions of his poetical 
writings : 

" O thou, whose cherished image seems 

A portion of my heart, 
Whose eyes of light make glad my dreams. 

Farewell, for now we part. 
The sail is swelling in the bay 
That bears me on my distant way, 
For years to rove the dreary sea — 
For years — and think of only thee. . 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 95 

" Yet will that beauteous image make 

The dreary sea less drear, 
And thy remembered smile will wake 

The hope that tramples fear, 
When I shall face the tempest's wrath, 
Or struggle through the dangerous path 
Where the blue icebergs, vast and steep, 
Drifting and dashing, crowd the deep. 

" Then, too, when heaven with clouds is dark 

And wild winds sweep the vale. 
Wilt thou not think of him whose bark 

Strives with the polar gale ? 
Wilt thou not think, and softly pray 
For the sea-wanderer far away. 
That, all his toils and perils o'er. 
His hand may clasp thy hand once more ? 

" But shouldst thou hear no more of me, 
Or hear that I have died 
And sleep within that icy sea, 

Or on its desert side. 
Will not a pang thy bosom press, 
Even in thy pride of loveliness — 
A tear in thy sweet eyelids shine 
For him whose latest thought was thine ?" 

From memoranda made at the time, the 
readers of this volume may perhaps obtain some 
slight idea of Mr. Bryant's entertaining but not 
brilliant conversation, for in this respect he made 
no claim to be the equal of Halleck or Holmes. 
During a two-hours ramble at Roslyn, in Oc- 
tober, 1869, when asked to prepare a poem for 
an army reunion, he remarked that he could not, 



96 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

as was the case with Whittier, Sprague, and 
some other writers, compose to order for par- 
ticular occasions, "but I must, lilce the Quakers, 
wait till the spirit moves me," concluding by 
quoting a verse from Wordsworth : 

" The moving accident is not my trade ; 

To freeze the blood I have no ready arts : 
'Tis my delight alone in summer shade 

To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts." 

Alluding to the work of translating Homer, on 
which he was at that time engaged, he said he 
believed that when he entered upon the task he 
was older than Dryden was at the time he began 
the same undertaking, and added that the fact 
of his feeling satisfied with his translation led 
him to think with Thorwaldsen, that he was fail- 
ing mentally. "Thorwaldsen, you may remem- 
ber, believed himself to have reached the climax 
of his powers in his famous statue of Christ, now 
at Copenhagen. 'I never was satisfied,' said the 
Dane, 'with any work of mine till I executed the 
Christ — and with that I am alarmed to find that 
I a7ji satisfied: therefore, on the way to decay.'" 

Something was said about Mr. Bryant's library: 
" I am not as great a collector as ' Catalogue Era- 
ser,' and care little for rare or early editions, like 
yourself. What books I buy are for use. Of 
course a great many are sent to me, and I find it 
difficult sometimes to acknowledge them, partic- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 9/ 

ularly in the case of collections of poems con- 
cerning which I cannot say anything favorable. 
Sometimes," he said with a smile, " the hand- 
some printing, the fine paper, or the tasteful 
binding or illustrations save me, and make the 
matter easier. I have more than once thought 
of adopting Sheridan's convenient formula for 
acknowledging all the new publications that 
were constantly sent to him : 'Dear Sir: I have 
received your acceptable volume, and I have no 
doubt I shall be highly delighted after I have 
read it.' Edward Everett, I understand, had a 
somewhat similar method." 

Alluding to some of his artist friends and their 
works, Mr. Bryant expressed admiration of Cole, 
Chapman, Durand, and Weir, and spoke of some 
of the few survivors of the Sketch Club, which 
met, I understood, very frequently in Sands's 
library at Hoboken, and included among its 
members one lady, who is — in June, 1885 — 
still living. Two of Durand's pictures hung in 
the house at Roslyn, one an admirable portrait 
of the poet, painted, as the artist informed me, 
about 1856; the other a large and characteristic 
landscape representing a scene in the Catskills, in 
which Bryant and his friend Thomas Cole are 
seen standing together on a rocky ledge gazing 
on the rushing torrent below. 

Speaking of an instance of plagiarism that had 
been exposed in tlie Post, he remarked, "Chan- 



98 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

cellor Somers wrote several pieces in verse, one 
of which was claimed by an impudent fellow. 
This person, happening to be presented to Lord 
Somers when Chancellor, was asked by him 
whether he knew who wrote the poem in ques- 
tion. " Yes, my Lord," he answered; " 'tis a trifle 
I struck off at a sitting." At this Somers laughed 
most heartily, and the pretended poet withdrew 
in confusion." 

Bryant referred with regret to the death of 
Sainte-Beuve, the distinguished writer, whom he 
had met in France, well known as the author of 
the " History of Port-Royal " and Les Consola- 
tions, and he commended most highly his chd^xxix- 
ing Cai/series du Lundi. "A judicious selection 
of them translated into good honest English 
would, I think, make an acceptable and popular 
volume. Why not do this, if your engagements 
permit ?" "* The poet then related a droll story of 
a duel between Sainte-Beuve and some one whose 
name I do not recall. "They arrived on the 
ground in the Bois de Boulogne amid a heavy 
rain, and the preliminaries having been arranged, 
the principals took their positions, Sainte-Beuve 
holding liis pistol in one hand and his umbrella 
over him in another. When the seconds pro- 
tested, he promptly replied, '' Je veux Men etre ttie j 



* This has since been wisely and exceedingly well done 
by Prof. William Mathews, LL D., of Boston. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 99 

inais mouille, nojt' (I am quite willing to be 
killed; but to get wet — no !)" 

Bryant expressed surprise at the retirement 
of his friend John Bigelow from the editorship 
of the Neiv York Times, "which has been exceed- 
ingly interesting while under his charge," allud- 
ing in the highest terms to his former partner's 
editorial and diplomatic abilities. In striking 
contrast to his warm commendation of Mr. Bige- 
low was his extremely severe criticism of a per- 
son at that time, as he said, "misrepresenting 
our country" at a European court. 

Conversing on the subject of the Spectator 
and its author, the poet said on another occa- 
sion: "Addison has received two distinct charac- 
ters from distinguished contemporaries. Lord 
Chesterfield, judging him in his stately home of 
Holland House and amidst his wife's grandeur, 
thought him 'the most timorous and awkward 
man he ever knew.' Alexander Pope, seeing 
him in the society of his intellectual equals, said 
he 'was perfect company with intimates, and 
had something more charming in his conversa- 
tion than I ever knew in any other man.' " 

^On the following day when we returned to 
town together on the steamboat, Mr. Bryant was 
full of conversation, and told me of his frequent 
excursions in former days on the west bank of 
the Hudson, and that, at least on one occasion, he 
and Halleck extended their walk from Hoboken 



lOO BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

to Fort Lee and back again, stopping by the way 
to see the famous duelling-ground at Weehawken, 
where Hamilton fell. 

"One of tlie few authentic instances," contin- 
ued the poet, " recorded of Washington being 
surprised into a hearty and uncontrollable fit of 
laughter occurred on the return of peace, when 
he was sailing on the Hudson with a party of 
friends, and was so overcome by the drollery of 
a story related by Major Fairlie of New York, of 
facetious memory, and father of the famous and 
witty Misses Fairlie, — Irving's and Halleck's 
great friends, — that he is said to have actually 
fallen back in the boat in a paroxysm of laughter. 
It was several minutes before the General suc- 
ceeded in recovering his usual gravity of de- 
meanour." Another pleasant Washington inci- 
dent related by the poet was of some occasion 
when the American troops, poorly clad and 
armed, were in battle array in front of the disci- 
plined veterans of England. " Washington 
passed along the lines," said the narrator, "and 
when he came before us, he stopped, and said, 'I 
place great confidence in this Rhode Island regi- 
ment.' And when I heard that," said the Revo- 
lutionary veteran, " I clasped my musket to my 
breast, and said, 'Damn 'em, let 'em come on! ' ' 

Some time about 1830, or possibly 1835, being 
in delicate health, Mr. Bryant said he was 
strongly recommended to take gymnastic exer- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. lOI 

cise, and he accordingly joined an institution of 
that character situated on the former site of the 
St. Nicholas Hotel in Broadway, and presided 
over by a prize-fighter named Fuller. Whether 
the poet received any instruction from this wor- 
thy in the manly art of self-defence he did not 
say, but simply remarked that he attended for a 
time the gymnasium, and received very great 
benefit therefrom. Ever afterwards he contin- 
ued his early morning athletic exercises with 
dumb-bells, horizontal bar, etc., an occupation 
that Mrs. Bryant once described to a young 
friend as his " monkey tricks." In a conversation 
with Mr. Bigelow but a few weeks before his 
death, the poet said that he still continued his 
usual amount of morning gymnastics. Mr. 
Bigelow, in his admirable address, adds, " I am 
warranted in saying that, until the distressing 
accident that ended his days, he was never dis- 
abled by sickness within the memory of any per- 
son now living. 

' In years he seemed, but not impaired by years! ' " 

Josiah Quincy at ninety-two attributed his 
good health and vigour chiefly to his habit of 
taking gymnastic exercise daily before dressing. 
His successor to the Presidency of Harvard Col- 
lege, Prof. Felton, said the same, and Dr. Dev/ey 
for thirty vears took his morning gymnastic ex- 
ercise and daily cold bath like his friend Bryant, 



102 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Soon after Mr. Bryant's return from his 
Southern tour we met on the Fifth Avenue near 
Fourteenth Street, and walked as far as the office 
of the Post, when we separated. Among other 
incidents of his visit to the city of Mexico, he 
said that being unsuccessful in his efforts to find 
a friend's house, he inquired in Spanish of a 
passer-by, who most politely insisted upon show- 
ing him the way. " I remonstrated, but without 
success," said the poet; "he would go with me; 
and after we separated I discovered that my po- 
lite friend had reimbursed himself for his time 
and trouble by taking my watch, — and a very 
good watch it was ; and I then remembered that 
as we passed along the streets he several times 
accidentally ran against me. It was in this way 
I suppose that he secured it." 

Having mentioned that an Oxford professor 
with whom I had recently conversed on the sub- 
ject of the various English translations of Homer, 
had never heard of his, Bryant remarked, "Well, 
I do not know that we should be surprised at that, 
when I have seen within a week one of my best 
known verses misquoted in an English journal, 
and its authorship attributed to Charles Wesley. 
Such is fame!" Alluding to his habits of poeti- 
cal composition, Mr. Bryant said that he had 
destroyed a great deal more verse than he had 
published, and remarked of a thinly attended 
but admirable discourse to which he had recently 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. I03 

listened, "The saying of Socrates occurred to 
me, when no one of his pupils but Plato came to 
hear, ' Few but fit.' Yes," he added, "perhaps 
this was running in Milton's mind when he said, 
' Fit audience let me find, though few. ' " 

Something was said at his house one Sunday 
afternoon soon after this meeting, about Alphonse 
Karr's recently published volume, and Bryant 
quoted a remark that had pleased him greatly: 
"Some people are always finding fault with 
Nature for putting thorns on roses ; but I always 
thank her for having put roses on thorns." Re- 
ferring to a paper of some kind, possibly a poem, 
which he had mislaid, he said, "I lost my manu- 
script, which, as worthy Samuel Pepys would 
add, 'do trouble me mightily.'" In answer tt) 
some inquiries about several of his poems he re- 
plied, " ' Thanatopsis,' it has always been said, 
was first published in 1816. It really appeared in 
Vol. V. of the North American Reviezu, of 181 7: I 
think in the month of September. 'The Painted 
Cup ' * w^as composed during my first visit to Illi- 



* Many years before his death Mr. Bryant made me a 
manuscript copy of this fine poem, to which, and also to 
his most famous composition, his surviving brother alludes 
in a letter to the author dated April, 1884. " I am," writes 
Mr. John H.Bryant, "quite sure 'The Painted Cup ' was 
written in 1832. My brother first saw it while with me on a 
horseback ride from Jacksonville to Springfield, thence north 
on the wild prairies about one hundred miles, crossing the 



I04 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

nois, about 1832. ' The May Sun Sheds an Amber 
Light,' which you admire so much, owing prob- 
ably to the beautiful music to which your father 
wedded the words, was first published in the 
Knickerbocker Magazine, but the verses were writ- 
ten several years earlier, and were suggested by 
the death of my mother." In answer to the in- 
quiry as to which of all his poetical children he 
preferred, Mr. Bryant replied, "I cannot say that 
I have any particular favourite, but some of my 
friends are very partial to 'Thanatopsis,' which, I 
believe, is more copied in the Anthologies than 
any other. Some persons in whose opinions I 
have confidence tell me that ' The Past ' is the best 
thing I have written, and perhaps it is," 

Washington Irving said to the author at Sun- 
nyside, that he preferred of all Bryant's poems 
" The Rivulet; " Dana deemed " The Past," if not 



Sangamon River, where we saw the flower in great abund- 
ance. This was the only time he ever saw the savannahs 
of the Sangamon. It is true he visited Illinois in 1841, but a 
different part from that seen in 1832. I am not able to tell 
how many trips he made to the West, but he came several 
times to see us — the last time in 1872. . . . There is one 
remarkable thing about ' Thanatopsis,' as it seems to me, 
and that is, that the boy did not appear conscious that he 
had produced anything remarkable, else why did it lie un- 
known to any one but himself for nearly five years, hidden 
away in a pigeon-hole, and even then was given to the pub- 
lic without any agency or knowledge of the writer ?" 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. IO5 

his best, as good as anything that came from his 
pen ; Halleck, as we have seen, was partial to 
"The Planting of the Apple Tree;" and Simms 
said, "O Mother of a Mighty Race" is a noble 
poem — perhaps his noblest." The poet Street 
thought Bryant has not produced anything finer 
than "A Forest Hymn;" the eloquent Orville 
Dewey preferred his lines " To a Waterfowl ; " 
Robert C. Winthrop most admires "The Land 
of Dreams;" while Bishop Huntington pro- 
nounces "The Waning Moon" the best of all 
Bryant's poetical writings. Thus different poets 
and authorities are differently impressed. 

When in November, 1884, it was proposed by a 
Commissioner of the New York Board of Educa- 
tion that leaflets of Bryant's poetry be added to 
those of Longfellow and Whittier, in use in the 
schools, another member of the Board said, "I 
have the greatest respect for William Cullen Bry- 
ant as a publicist and political economist. I was 
in favour of the Longfellow and Whittier leaflets, 
but when people read poetry they should have 
the best; not second-rate poetry"! The propo- 
sition was negatived by these literary Solomons. 

One bright morning many years ago an elder- 
ly country couple rang the bell at the New York 
house of William Cullen Bryant, and asked if 
they could see Mr. Bryant. On being told it was 
impossible, they seemed much cast down, and the 
old lady said tearfully that they had come fifty 



I06 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

miles on purpose to see him. Their disappoint- 
ment was so evident, and tlie fact that these sim- 
ple children of Nature had made so long a pil- 
grimage to see the "poet of the woods" was so 
touching, they were told they might see his study. 
Here they were much interested, and their reve- 
rential, subdued manner confirmed the good im- 
pression they had already made. Finally they 
begged to be allowed " to look at Mr. Bryant 
just once." 

"But Mr. Bryant is dressing. It is impossi- 
ble." 

"Dressing!" exclaimed the old couple in a 
breath. "Why, we came to see the corpse !" 

Dan Bryant, " the minstrel," was dead, and the 
worthy people recognized but one form of min- 
strelsy — the burnt-cork variety. 

To this little incident, which we find related in 
Harper s Magazine (Nov., 1884), we can only add, 
in Byron's satiric phrase, 

" What is the end of Fame ? 'tis but to fill 
A certain portion of uncertain paper." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. I07 



CHAPTER IV. 

Of no distemper, of no blast he died. 
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long: 
Even wonder'd at, because he dropt no sooner. 
Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years; 
Yet freshly ran he on three winters more; 
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time, 
The wheels of weary life at last stood still. 

John Dryden. 

In accordance with the expressed wishes of 
Richard Henry Dana,* and many other personal 



* The venerable poet writes, June 17, 1878: "When the 
news of the accident reached Boston, I was ill and on my 
bed. My friends, fearing the effect which making known 
to me the condition of my dear old friend might have upon 
me, said nothing about it till the morning before he passed 
away from us. The last of my early friends is taken from 
me, and has left me an old, feeble man; but not for long — I 
must soon follow him. Will you, my dear sir, write me 
what you can of the particulars ? Every incident will be 
precious to me. 

" My son and I thank you for writing him to come to your 
house on this mournful occasion. He had the hope for an 
hour or two that he might be with you, but it was not to be. 
I have written all that I have strength for. My poor head !" 

[The son alluded to by Mr. Dana was the eminent lawyer, 
and the well-known author of "Two Years Before the Mast,' 



I08 BRYAN 7' AND HIS FRIENDS. 

friends of the patriarch of American poetry, who 
was so recently laid in his grave with many tears, 
and also remembering that posterity likes details 
in regard to the latest actions and utterances of 
eminent men, I have recorded, to the best of my 
recollection, some particulars of his conversation 
during the afternoon of Wednesday, May 29, his 
last hours of consciousness, and but a few days 
before 

" He gave his honours to the world again, 

His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." 

Mr. Bryant was appointed to deliver an oration 
on the occasion of unveiling a bronze bust of 
Giuseppe Mazzine, the Italian revolutionist and 
statesman, in the Central Park. I met him in 
the Park about half an hour before the com- 
mencement of the ceremonies, conversing with 
him during that time, and again for a similar 
period after those ceremonials were concluded. 
While I was walking with the poet for the last 
time, he quoted an aphorism from his friend 
Sainte-Beuve, that '' To know another man well, 
especially if he be a noted and illustrious char- 
acter, is a great thing not to be despised." It was 
my good fortune to have enjoyed for nearly or 



who was prevented by urgent affairs in Boston from being 
present at Mr. Bryant's funeral to represent his aged father. 
— The Author.] 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. IO9 

quite a quarter of a century the privilege and 
pleasure of Mr. Bryant's acquaintance, and in all 
that time I never met him in a more cheerful 
and conversational mood than on the above- 
mentioned afternoon, and never saw him exhibit 
on any other occasion an equal depth and tender- 
ness of feeling, either in his public utterances or 
in his private talk. 

At the proper time the poet took his seat on 
the platform — for he had been standing or seated 
under the welcome shade of adjoining elms — and 
presently he proceeded with the delivery of the 
last of a long series of scholarly addresses deliv- 
ered in New York during the past thirty years. As 
I gazed on the majestic man, with his snow-white 
hair and flowing beard, his small, keen, but gentle 
blue eye, his light but firm, lithe figure, standing 
so erect and apparently with undiminished 
vigour, articulating with such distinctness, I 
thought of what Napoleon said of another great 
singer who, like our American poet, reached an 
advanced age to which but few attain: " Behold 
a man !" 

The delivery of the oration, which affords most 
interesting evidence of the enthusiasm and mental 
energy of its aged author, it is to be feared drew 
too heavily on the poet's failing powers. It was 
uttered with an unusual depth of feeling, and for 
the first time in his public addresses, so far as I 
am aware, he hesitated, and showed some diffi- 



no BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

culty in finding his place in the printed copy 
which was spread before him, and in proceeding 
with his remarks. During the delivery of his 
speech he was but slightly exposed to the hot 
sun, an umbrella being held over his 

" Good gray head, which all men knew," 

till he reached his peroration, when he stepped 
from under its shelter, and, looking up at the bust, 
delivered with power and great emphasis, while 
standing in the sun, the concluding paragraph of 
his address : 

" Image of the illustrious champion of civil and re- 
ligious liberty, cast in enduring bronze to typify the 
imperishable renown of thy original ! Remain for ages 
yet to come where we place thee, in this resort of mil- 
lions ; remain till the day shall dawn — far distant though 
it may be — when the rights and duties of human brother- 
hood shall be acknowledged by all the races of man- 
kind!" 

At the conclusion, the orator was loudly ap- 
plauded, and, resuming his seat on the platform, 
listened with interest to the address in Italian 
which followed his own. At the close of the cere- 
monies, and when Mr. Bryant was left almost 
alone on the platform, he took my offered arm to 
accompany me to my home, saying that he was 
perfectly able to walk there, or indeed to his own 
house in Sixteenth Street. Before proceeding, I 
again proposed that we should take a carriage, 
when he replied, in a determined manner, "I am 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. Ill 

not tired, and prefer to walk." As we set off I 
raised my umbrella to protect him from the sun, 
when he said, in a most decided tone, " Don't hold 
that umbrella up on my account; I like the 
warmth of the sunshine." He was much inter- 
ested in the fine flock of Southdown sheep, to- 
gether with the shephed and his intelligent 
Scotch collie, that he observed as we passed 
across the green. 

Mr. Bryant alluded to the death of Lord John 
Russell the day before, and asked if I had ever 
met him or heard him speak in public, adding, 
" For a statesman, he devoted a good deal of time 
to literature, and he appears to have been a man of 
respectable talents; how old was he ?" "Eighty- 
six." "Why, he was older than I am; but I ex- 
pect to beat that, and to live as long as my friend 
Dana, who is ninety-one." " Have you any theory 
as to the cause of your good health?" " O, yes," 
he answered; " it is all summed up in one word — 
moderation. As you know, I am a moderate eater 
and drinker, moderate in my work, as well as in 
my pleasures, and I believe the best way to pre- 
serve the mental and physical faculties is to keep 
them employed. Don't allow them to rust." "But 
surely," I added, "there is no moderation in a 
man of eighty-three, after walking more than 
two miles, mounting eight or nine flights of stairs 
to his office." " O," he merrily replied, "I con- 
fess to the two or three miles down-town, but I 



112 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

do not often mount the stairs; and if I do some- 
times, when the elevator is not there, I do not see 
that it does me any harm. I can walk and work 
as well as ever, and have been at the office to-day 
as usual." 

Some mention having been made of Lord 
Houghton's and Tapper's recent travels in this 
country, the poet asked, ''Did I ever tell you of 
Lord Houghton's visit to Roslyn a few years 
ago ? He was accompanied by his valet, who an- 
nounced in my kitchen that ' his master was the 
greatest poet in England,' when one of my ser- 
vants, not to be outdone, thereupon said, ' Our 
man is the greatest poet in America.'" The use 
of the words " master" and "man," I may re- 
mark, are worthy of notice, and appeared to 
amuse the poet when relating the incident. 

Passing the Halleck statue, Mr. Bryant paused 
to speak of it, of other statues in similar sittmg 
posture, and of Halleck himself and his genius.. 
"I always," said Bryant, "thought it singular 
that Halleck should be my junior, as he was rep- 
resented to have been born in 1795, till your me- 
moir of him appeared. I suppose that he did 
not think it a matter of sufficient importance to 
notice, and so it passed into the books and biog- 
raphies that he was my junior by one year. Be- 
sides," he added gaily, "as he was a bachelor, 
I presume he was warranted in allowing the 
world to believe that he was younger by five 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. II3 

years than would have appeared in the Halleck 
family Bible." I hazarded the remark that I 
thought the American poems which would be 
remembered and read a hundred years hence 
were his "Thanatopsis " and "The Flood of 
Years," and Halleck's glorious lines on the 
Greek patriot. " Perhaps you are right," he re- 
plied, adding, " The reading of ' Marco Boz- 
zaris ' and some other of Halleck's best poems 
stirs up my blood like the sound of martial music 
or the blast of a trumpet." 

Still continuing to lean on my arm, he asked 
my little daughter, whose hand he had held and 
continued to hold during our walk, if she knew 
the names of the robins and sparrows that at- 
tracted his attention, and also the names of some 
flowering shrubs that we passed. Her correct 
answers pleased him, and he then inquired if 
she had ever heard some little verses about the 
bobolink. She answered yes, and she also knew 
the poet who wrote them. This caused him much 
amusement, and he said, " I think I shall have 
to write them out for you. Mary, do you know 
the name of that tree with the pretty blue flow- 
ers ?" he asked, and as she did not know, he 
told her that it was " called the Paulownia im- 
' perialis — a hard name for a little girl to remem- 
ber ; it was named in honor of a princess, and 
was brought from Japan." 

Arriving at the Morse statue at the Seventy- 



114 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

second Street gate, we stopped, and he said, 
" This recalls to my mind a curious circumstance. 
You remember Launt Thompson's bust of me 
which the Commissioners refused to admit in the 
Park, on the ground that I was living ? Well, soon 
after, this statue of Morse was placed here, al- 
though he was alive, and [laughingly] I was asked 
to deliver the address on the occasion of its un- 
veiling, which I did." "Do you like your bust?" 
"Yes, I think it is a good work of art, and the 
likeness is pleasing and satisfactory, I believe, 
to my friends." * " Which do you think your best 
portrait?" "Unlike Irving, I prefer the por- 
traits made of me in my old age. Of the earlier 
pictures, I presume the best are Inman's and my 
friend Durand's, which you perhaps remember 
hangs in the parlor at Roslyn." 



*The name of Reservoir Square, New York, was in 1884 
changed to Bryant Park, and and it is proposed to place in 
its centre a full-length bronze statue of the poet, or the 
noble bust which is to be seen in the Poets' Corner of the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The most important portraits of the poet, mentioned as 
nearly as possible in the order in which they were painted, 
are by Prof. S. F. B. Morse (1825); Henry Inman (1835); 
Henry Peters Gray, S. W. Cheney, Charles Martin (1851); 
Charles L. Elliott (1854); A. B. Durand, Samuel Lawrence 
(1856); Paul Duggan, C. G. Thompson, A. H.Wenzler (1861); 
Thomas Hicks (1863); F. L. Boyle (1869); Thomas Le 
Clear (1874); and Charles Fisher (1875). Of these I have 
engravings on steel now before me from Cheney's, In- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. II5 

As we approached my house about four o'clock, 
Mr. Bryant was recalling the scenes of the pre- 
vious year on the occasion of President Hayes's 
first visit to New York, and he was still, I think, 
cheerfully conversing on that subject as we 
walked up arm in arm, and all entered the vesti- 
bule. Disengaging my arm, I took a step in ad- 
vance to open the inner door, and during those 
few seconds, without the slightest warning of 
any kind, the venerable poet, while my back was 
turned, dropped my daughter's hand and fell 
suddenly backward through the open outer door. 
I turned just in time to see his silvered head 
striking the platform stone, and, springing to his 
side, hastily raised him up.* He was uncon- 
scious, and I supposed that he was dead. Ice- 
water was immediately applied to his head, and, 
with the assistance of a neighbor's son and the 
servants, he was carried into the parlour and laid 
unconscious at full length on the sofa. He soon 
moved, became restless, and in a few minutes sat 



man's, Martin's, Elliott's, Durand's, and Lawrence's por- 
traits, as well as several taken from recent photographs. 
The picture of Mr. Bryant which appears in this volume is 
engraved from an admirable photograph taken by Sarony. 
The portrait by the Danish artist Wenzler was sold in April, 
1885, for one thousand dollars, and is now in Newport, R. I. 
* Mr. Bryant had a similiar attack in October, 1873, at ' 
Appleton's book-store, then in Broadway, whither he had 
gone to see the senior member of the firm on a matter con- 
nected vvith the Halleck statue now in Central Park. De- 



Il6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

up and drank the contents of a goblet filled with 
iced sherry, which partially restored him, and he 
asked, with a bewildered look, "Where am I? 
I do not feel at all well. Oh, my head ! my poor 
head !" accompanying the words by raising his 
right hand to his forehead. After a little, at his 
earnest request, I accompanied him to his own 
house, and leaving him in charge of his niece, 
went for his family physician, the late Dr. John 
F. Gray, whom he failed to recognize on our ar- 
rival, or at any later period. The following is a 
portion of the statement made by Dr. Gray after 
the poet's death : 

" I sent for Dr. Carnochan, the surgeon. He could 
find no injury to the skull, and therefore thought there 
was a chance of recovery. Mr. Bryant, during the first 
few days, would get up and walk about the library or 
sit in his favorite chair. He would occasionally say 
something about diet and air. When his daughter ar_ 
rived from Atlantic City, where she had been for her 
health, she thought her father recognized her. It is 
uncertain how far he recognized her or any of his 
friends. The family were hopeful, and made the most 
out of every sign ef consciousness or recognition. 

" On the eighth day after the fall, hemorrhage took 
place in the brain, resulting in paralysis, technically 



scending the stairs leading from the counting-room, the poet 
would have fallen headlong had not a friend by his side 
fortunately caught him by the arm, and so most happily 
prevented what would probably have proved an equally 
fatal fall. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. W] 

called hemiplegia, and extending down the right side 
of the body. After this he was most of the time coma- 
tose. He ceased to recognize his friends in any way, 
and lay much of the time asleep. He was unable to 
speak, and when he attempted to swallow, his food 
lodged in his larynx and choked him. He was greatly 
troubled with phlegm, and could not clear his throat. 
There was only that one attack of hemorrhage of the 
brain, and that was due to what is called traumatic in- 
flammation. After the fourteenth day he died. 

"He was a man who made little demonstration of 
affection or emotion, but he had a profoundly sympa- 
thetic feeling for the life and mission of Mazzini, and 
on the day when he delivered the address he exhibited 
considerable emotion. That and the walk afterwards 
certainly exhausted him, and led to the swoon. He 
overtaxed his strength during the winter, in attending 
evening entertainments and in public speaking. He 
had few intimate acquaintances, and was so extremely 
modest in expressing approbation or liking that one 
could scarcely tell the extent of his friendly feeling. 
Though I had attended him for many years, and often 
visited him at Roslyn, and also at his old homestead in 
Massachusetts, I never noticed an expression of more 
than ordinary friendship till I was prostrated by sick- 
ness. He made an impression ordinarily of coldness, 
but his poems show that he had plenty of feeling, and 
great sympathy for mankind. Once when at Roslyn 
we visited the grave of his wife in the village cemetery, 
and we saw the place by her side reserved for him. 
He frequently requested that his funeral should be sim- 
ple and without ostentation. He has had fulfilled his 
wish to die in June. Mr. Bryant owed his long life to 



Il8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

an exceedingly tenacious and tough constitution and 
very prudent living. I always found him an early riser. 
Although he was slight of body and limb, he seemed to 
me unconscious of fatigue, and he would walk many a 
stronger man off his legs. He did not walk rapidly, 
but seemed as wiry as an Indian." 

In April, 1867, Mr. Bryant expressed to the 
writer a wish that he might not survive the loss 
of his mental faculties like Southey, Scott, Wil- 
son, Lockhart, and the Ettrick Shepherd, who 
all suffered from softening of the brain, and 
mentioned his hope that he should be permitted 
to complete his translation of Homer before 
death or mental imbecility, with a failure of phys- 
ical strength, should overtake him. On another 
occasion he said, " If I am worthy, I would wish 
for sudden death, with no interregnum between 
I cease to exercise 7-eason &.nd I cease to exist." In 
these wishes he was happily gratified, as well as 
in the time of being laid away to his final rest, 
as expressed in his beautiful and characteristic 
lines to June : 

" I gazed upon the glorious sky, 

And the green mountains round, 
And thought that when I came to lie 

At rest within the ground, 
'Twere pleasant that in flowery June, 
When brooks send up a cheerful tune. 

And groves a cheerful sound. 
The sexton's hand, my grave to make, 
The rich, green mountain turf should break. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. II9 

" I know that I no more should see 

The season's glorious show, 
Nor would its brightness shine for me, 

Nor its wild music flow ; 
But if, around my place of sleep, 
The friends I love should come to weep. 

They might not haste to go. 
Soft airs, and song, and light and bloom 
Should keep them lingering by my tomb. 

"These to their softened hearts should bear 

The thought of what has been, 
And speak of one who cannot share 

The gladness of the scene ; 
Whose part, in all the pomp that fills 
The circuit of the summer hills, 

Is that his grave is green ; 
And deeply would their hearts rejoice 
To hear again his living voice." 

The day after his death, which occurred at 
half-past five in the morning of June 12, the 
writer was taken up to the little front chamber 
in which the poet lay, and the covering being 
removed, he saw his countenance 

" All cold and all serene." 

Never shall I forget the beauty of th'at won- 
drously beautiful face, almost buried in snowy 
hair, and so marble-like in the sleep of death. 
As Washington Irving said of the old sexton who 
crept into the vault where the myriad-minded 
Shakespeare was entombed, and beheld the ashes 



I20 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

of ages, *' It was something to have seen the dust" 
of Bryant. Assuredly no sculptor ever modelled 
a more majestic and beautiful image of repose. 

It was indeed a glorious day (June 14), and 
the daisies were dancing and glimmering over 
the fields as the poet's family, a few old friends, 
and the villagers saw him laid in his last resting- 
place at Roslyn, after a few words fitly spoken 
by his pastor, and beheld his coffin covered with 
roses and other summer flowers by a little band 
of country children, who gently dropped them 
as they circled round the poet's grave. This 
act completed, we left the aged minstrel amid 
the melody dearest of all to him in life — the 
music of the gentle June breezes murmuring 
through the tree-tops, from whence also came 
the songs of summer birds. 

The following, from the pen of the late Charles 
P. Clin<:h, is one of the many tributes to Mr. 
Bryant's character and genius, that have ap- 
peared since the poet's death, from the pens of 
Stedman, Stoddard, Symington (a Scottish 
singer), and others. The lines were composed 
for the unveiling of the poet's bust by Thomp- 
son, and were left by Mr. Clinch to be read on 
that occasion by the writer, or otherwise dis- 
posed of, as he deemed best. The opportunity 
for being thus made use of having not yet pre- 
sented itself, the poem is now introduced in the, 
pages of this brief biography: 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 121 

Oh ! lift the veil from off his face ! 

That mind-illumined, dauntless brow 
Before mankind for briefest space 

A mask hath never known till now ! 

Forth from his eye a spirit glanced 

Nor frown nor inquest could appall: 
The faith within him still advanced 

Its banner on the outward wall ! 

Assailing wrong, defending right. 

With piercing thought and fervid breath ; 

Foremost, and undismayed in fight — 
His warfare only ceased in death ! 

His pen was mightier than the sword 

Oi warrior in the battle's strife ! 
It conquered error — to reward 
The vanquished with replenished life ! 

Not his on disputation's field 
The wrangler's mood or sceptic's part ; 

Nor his to sophist wiles to yield : 
His triumphs were of truth — not art: 

By parable and fabled scene 

He gave stern truths a mellowed zest : — 
Such moral teaching aye hath been 

The meekest and the mightiest ! 

What though his warning words seemed wrought 
V/ith wrath, the pleas of wrong to shiver ? 

Yet the naive firstlings of his thought 

Flowed gently as his own " Green River," 

Renewing to his heart's caress 

The hope that strife on earth would cease ; 
That wisdom's ways of pleasantness, 

And precepts of her paths of peace, 



122 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Would banish by their ministry 
The evils bred of kings and caste ; 

And wrongs by man to man should be 
But memories of the buried past. 

For he was minstrel born: the germ 
His soul received in matin hour 

Blossomed in boyhood, to affirm 
The presence of the poet's power. 

Celestial power ! his gift of birth — 
His almoner of boundless ruth, — 

Was vivid till his " last of earth " 
With guileless eloquence of truth, 

Which reached the darkened soul's recess 

Whence doubt-engendered torment springs- 
Missioned the wounded mind to bless, 
With halcyon healing in its wings ! 

It searched Creation's varied page. 

And read TAe Father's love and power 

In the wild whirlwind's reckless rage — 
In the meek advent of a flower. 

His "Yellow Violet" peeping, dim, 
Beneath the fallen wintry leaves ; 

His " Forest Anthem'' and the hymn 
Of harvest-tinted fruits and sheaves ; 

Melodious hum of threatening bees, 

With insect-concerts in the air ; 
Pictures of autumn-painted trees, 

In Indian summer's veiled glare ; 

His homeward flight of " Water-fowl" 
In dewy evening's twilight glow; 

His romance of the winter's scowl 
" The Little People of the Snow;" - 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1 23 

And all earth's harmonies that throng 
With themes, the poet's harp to stir, — 

Embalm'd in memory by the song 
Of Nature's lifelong worshipper. 

Have garlanded with garnered sweets, 

And hues and chants of flying birds, 
The dearest of the heart's retreats, 

Our homes, our household thoughts, and words; 

And taught our minds, with reverent cheer, 
O'er Nature's simplest works to pause, — 

In germ, maturity, and sere 
To recognize The Great First Cause ! 

Truth's inspiration, which of yore 

Gave Israel's bards prophetic fire, 
And taught their numbers mystic lore. 

Seemed still to hover o'er his lyre. 

His muse, in youth's untrammelled flight, 

The bounds of Life could not enslave ; 
His " Thanatopsis" shed a light — 

The light of song — beneath the grave, 

Soothing sad, doubting hearts to rest — 
Even hearts of faith — that shunned to lay 

Their forms in dust, till Heaven's behest 
Re-formed them, at Earth's final day. 

Through the long autumn of his days 
His heart and brain still worked to win 

Man's wandering mind from error's ways — 
For deeds to thoughts are next of kin. 

'Twas his fond wont to cull the bays 

Of allies stricken from his side — 
To braid them in a wreath of praise ; 

And in that task of love he died. 



124 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

His civic crown was gemmed so oft, 

So early — on the scroll of fame, 
Each coming age will "look aloft," 

To woo and worship Bryant's name. 

I cannot forbear adding to this expression of 
appreciative affection a few words from the 
funeral address uttered by his pastor, the late 
Rev. Dr. Bellows, at the commemorative cere- 
mony held in New York, on Friday morning, the 
14th of June, at All Souls' Church, of which Mr. 
Bryant was for the last fifteen years of his life 
an active and honoured member. Dr. Bellows 
said: 

" Never, perhaps, was there an instance of such pre- 
cocity in point of wisdom and maturity as that which 
marked 'Thanatopsis,' written at eighteen, or of such 
persistency in judgment, force, and melody as that ex- 
hibited in his last public ode, written at eighty-three, 
on occasion of Washington's last birthday. Between 
these two bounds lies one even path, high, finished, 
faultless, in which comes a succession of poems, always 
meditative, always steeped in the love and knowledge 
of nature, always pure and melodious, always stamped 
with his sign-manual of faultless taste and gem-like 
purity. . . , 

" A devoted lover of religious liberty, he was an 
equal lover of religion itself — not in any precise dog- 
matic form, but in its righteousness, reverence, and 
charity. . . . 

" It is the glory of this man that his character out- 
shone even his great talent and his large fame. Dis- 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1 25 

tinguished equally for his native gifts and his consum- 
mate culture, his poetic inspiration and his exquisite 
art, he is honored and loved to-day even more for his 
stainless purity of life, his unswerving rectitude of will, 
his devotion to the higher interests of his race, his 
unfeigned patriotism, and his broad humanity. . . . 

"The increasing sweetness and beneficence of his 
character, meanwhile, must have struck his familiar 
friends. His last years were his devoutest and most 
humane years. He became beneficent as he grew able 
to be so, and his hand was open to all just needs and 
to many unreasonable claimants." 

*In this connection it is interesting to note that 
perhaps the very last production of Bryant's well- 
preserved mind was an Introduction, in most 
admirable prose, with its 

" Choice word and measured phrase above the reach 
Of ordinary men," 

to a treatise on "The Religious Life," by the 
Rev. Dr. Joseph Alden. The unfinished manu- 
script was found among a mass of other papers 
on the poet's desk when mental death suddenly 
enveloped him on that sunny May day. This 
Introduction contains a more distinct declaration 
of the writer's religious opinions than are given 
elsewhere in the many thousand pages that 
flowed from Bryant's tireless and prolific pen. 
Two paragraphs from this valuable Christian 
testimony will be read with interest: 



126 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

"This character, of which Christ was the perfect 
model, is itself so attractive, so altogether lovely, that 
I cannot describe in language the admiration with 
which I regard it ; nor can I express the gratitude I 
feel for the dispensation which bestowed that example 
on mankind, for the truths that He taught and the 
sufferings He endured for our sakes. I tremble to think 
what the world would be without Him. Take away 
the blessing of the advent of His life and the blessings 
purchased by His death, in what an abyss of guilt 
man would have been left ! It would seem to be blot- 
ting the world out of the heavens — to leave our system 
of worlds in chaos, frost, and darkness. 

" In my view of the life, the teachings, the labours, 
and the sufferings of the blessed Jesus, there can be no 
admiration too profound, no love of which the human 
heart is capable too warm, no gratitude too earnest 
and deep, of which He is justly the object. It is with 
sorrow that my love for Him is so cold and my grati- 
tude so inadequate. It is with sorrow that I see any 
attempt to put aside His teachings as a delusion, to 
turn men's eyes from His example, to meet with doubt 
and denial the story of His life. For my part, if I 
thought that the religion of scepticism were to gather 
strength and prevail and become the dominant view of 
mankind, I should despair of the fate of mankind in the 
years that are to come. " 

No more appropriate concluding paragraph 
can be added to this memorial paper, which I 
could wish worthier of the good and gifted Bry- 
ant, — Integer vitce scelerisgue purus, — than his own 
beautiful words, applied to his contemporary 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 12/ 

Washington Irving. "If it were becoming," 
said the poet, " to address our departed friend 
as if in his immediate presence, I would say . . . 
' Farewell, thou who hast entered into the rest 
prepared from the foundation of the world for 
serene and gentle spirits like thine. Farewell, 
happy in thy life, happy in thy death, happier in 
the reward to which that death is the assured 
passage ; fortunate in attracting the admiration 
of the world to thy beautiful writings ; still more 
fortunate in having written nothing which did 
not tend to promote the reign of magnanimous 
forbearance and generous sympathies among 
thy fellow-men. The brightness of that endur- 
ing fame which thou hast won on earth is but a 
shadowy symbol of the glory to which thou art 
admitted in the world beyond the grave. Thy 
errand on earth was an errand of peace and 
good-will to men, and thou art now in a region 
where hatred and strife never enter, and where 
the harmonious activity of those who inhabit it 
acknowledges no impulse less noble or less pure 
than that of love.' " 





'^•. -Ealj!\v..B:cTii a Drawing hy Joseph W^.ui 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 



1778-1860. 



Among the first to make a creditable" appear- 
ance in the field of American literature was 
James Kirke Paulding. He was also the first of 
our writers who could be put forth as success- 
fully refuting those critics, chiefly English, who 
claimed that there was no nationality in our lit- 
erature. Nationality is the prominent charac- 
teristic of all his writings, which appeared dur- 
ing a period of nearly sixty years. The author 
of "The Dutchman's Fireside" found inspira- 
tion at home for his earlier works, — when neither 
American scenes nor American society were 
supposed to furnish attractive materials, — as he 
continued to do throughout his long career of 
authorship. Paulding was a man of great intel- 
lectual robustness : strong in his convictions, 
and inexorable in his prejudices; with great 
clearness of perception, but little inclination to 
the ideal ; a hearty hater, and a devoted friend ; 
rejoicing in sarcasm, though free from malignity, 
both in his books and in his conversation; never 



130 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

yielding to the illusion of fancy or feeling, and 
expressing himself in language more remarkable 
for its grave irony and blunt vigour than for its 
amenity or elegance. No man ever stood up 
more stoutly or manfully in defence of that 

"mother of a mighty race," 

when she was assailed from abroad, than James 
K. Paulding; nor did any man ever born on 
American soil entertain greater contempt for 
foreign example or criticism. Between Paulding 
and his contemporary Cooper there were many 
strong points of resemblance ; between the 
author of "The Backwoodsman" and his life- 
long friend and kinsman, Washington Irving, 
few if any. 

James Kirke Paulding, a member of a family 
ennobled by sacrifices, when sacrifices were the 
seal of devotion to American liberty, was born 
in the village of Nine-Partners, N. Y., on the 
twenty-second day of August, 1778. Paulding's 
native county of Dutchess is better known for 
its rich farms than for its famous men or women. 
James Kent, James Emott, and Thomas J, Oak- 
ley — three eminent jurists; Quitman, the soldier; 
the brother bishops Potter, sons of a quiet 
Quaker farmer; the greatest living traveller, if 
not indeed the greatest traveller who ever lived 
— -John Guy Vassar; and two ladies — one a cele- 
brated beauty, pronounced by the late Emperor 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 13I 

of Russia to be the most beautiful woman he had 
ever seen; the other an equally celebrated ac- 
tress, born in the picturesque village of Pleasant 
Valley — are the only notabilities that the good 
old county of Dutchess can claim outside the 
walks of literature. Among her authors is Alfred 
B. Street, the popular poet; James E. and Mar}' C. 
Brooks, two sweet singers, the former of whom 
ranked with Drake and Halleck as one of the 
poetical trio of Gotham something less than 
seventy years since; Spencer, the well-known 
classical scholar; Benson J. Lossing, the histo- 
rian of the Revolution and of the Rebellion; 
and Andrew Jackson Davis, the prolific writer 
of works on Spiritualism. We may add that 
many well-known men have found their homes 
in Dutchess County, Within her borders re- 
sided the gallant Richard Montgomery who fell 
at Quebec, — 

" Death made no conquest of this conqueror, 
For now he lives in fame, though not in life ;" — 

and another Revolutionary hero. Gov. Morgan 
Lewis; Generals Armstrong and Tallmadge; Ho- 
sack, the famous physician; the scholarly and 
philanthropic founder of the Lenox Library; 
and Wilson, the genial entertainer of men of 
letters, and the writer of many sweet Scottish 
songs. It was also the home of Morse, the artist 
and inventor; of Verplanck, the ripe scholar. 



132 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

and representative of one of the oldest Dutch 
families; of Davies, the eminent judge, and his 
brother the author; of Matthew Vassar, who in 
such princely style founded a college for the 
benefit of the young women of his adopted 
country; and of President Raymond, the distin- 
guished educator, who formulated and organized 
Vassar College. 

Our author's father, William Paulding, settled 
at Tarrytown, in Westchester County, many 
years previous to the Revolutionary War. Re- 
siding "within the lines," that is, on the debat- 
able land intervening between the armies, he was 
greatly exposed to the insults and depredations 
of I'oving bands of British soldiers and Tories. 
He therefore determined to remove with his 
family to Dutchess County, which resolution he 
carried out, pitching his tent at Nine-Partners, a 
neighbourhood, according to an English author- 
ity, inhabited by " a riotous people, and levellers 
by principle." William Paulding was a mem- 
ber of the New York Committee of Safety, and 
Commissary-General of the State troops, and an 
uncle of John Paulding, the captor of Major 
Andre. While the army was suffering from the 
want of necessary supplies, owing to the total 
extinction of the public credit. Commissary 
Paulding made use of his own credit among the 
farmers, and became responsible for large sums 
of money. When the war was concluded, on pre- 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 1 33 

senting his accounts to the Auditor-General this 
portion of them was rejected, on the ground that 
he had no authority to make these pledges in 
behalf of the Government. He retired a ruined 
man, and was thrown into prison by his credi- 
tors, until at length his confinement terminated 
at the expiration of six years by his prison tak- 
ing fire, when he made his escape, and returned 
unmolested to his home. He never renewed 
his application, but passed the remainder of his 
days in poverty and such depression as might 
naturally be induced by the recollection of his 
many wrongs and sufferings. His wife, Cathe- 
rine Ogden, of the New Jersey family of that 
name, was a woman of indomitable will, com- 
bined with great industry and economy, and was 
the main-stay of the family. 

Soon after peace was declared, the Pauldings 
returned to their former abode in Westchester 
County. Of his early years our author says: 
"There was little sunshine in my youth. For 
some time after the war there were very few 
schools in our part of the country, and the near- 
est school-house was upward of two miles from 
our residence. At this country school, which 
was a log-hut, I received my education," which, 
he elsewhere remarks, " cost first and last about 
fifteen dollars — certainly quite as much as it was 
worth." " I never look back on that period of 
life which most people contemplate with so 



134 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

much regret as the season of blossoms, without 
a feeling of dreary sadness. From the experi- 
ence of my early life, I never wish to be young 
again." At the age of nineteen he went to New 
York and took up his residence with his eldest 
brother, who had secured a place for him in a 
public office. Through William Irving, a man of 
wit and genius, whose residence was the familiar 
resort of many young men of literary taste and 
aspirations, Paulding became acquainted with 
Washington Irving. A strong friendship im- 
mediataly sprung up between them, which con- 
tinued unbroken to the last. They had each 
written some trifling articles for the Morning 
Chronicle, and other journals of the day, — Pauld- 
ing a few hits at the follies of society, and Irving 
his " Oliver Oldstyle" essays, — when, meeting one 
evening at William Irving's, they formed the pro- 
ject of publishing a periodical to lash and amuse 
the town. On the twenty-fourth of January, 
1807, the first number of Salmagundi, or the 
Whim- Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff 
and Others, was issued in New York by David 
Longworth. It was the joint production of 
Washington Irving and Paulding, with the ex- 
ception of the poetical epistles and some three 
or four prose articles which were written by Wil- 
liam Irving. Salmagundi was a great success. It 
satirized the follies of the day with great prodi- 
gality of wit, and no less exuberance of good- 



JAMES K. PAULDING. I35 

nature. Nothing of the kind had appeared 
before from an American pen or press, and its 
great success was perhaps the determining cause 
of the subsequent devotion to literature of its 
chief authors. At the expiration of a year, 
twenty numbers having been issued, Sahnagiindi 
was suddenly discontinued, owing to the refusal 
of the publisher to remunerate its authors. 

Bryant, in his noble tribute to Irving, speak- 
ing of this work, says: " In form it resembles 
the 'Tatler ' and that numerous brood of period- 
ical papers to which the success of the ' Tatler ' 
and * Spectator ' gave birth ; but it is in no sense 
an imitation. Its gaiety is its own ; its style of 
humour is not that of Addison or Goldsmith, 
though it has all the genial spirit of theirs ; nor 
is it borrowed from any other writer. It is far 
more frolicsome and joyous, yet tempered by a 
native gracefulness. Salmagundi was manifestly 
written without the fear of criticism before the 
eyes of the authors, and to this sense of perfect 
freedom in the exercise of their genius the 
charm is probably owing which makes us still 
read it with so much delight ; and Paulding, 
though he has since acquired a reputation by his 
other writings, can hardly be said to have written 
anything better than the best of those which are 
ascribed to his pen." In the preface to an edition 
published in i860, Mr. E. A. Duyckinck says : 
"A considerable portion of the book was written 



136 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

by Paulding. We may perhaps trace his pen in 
the 'Oriental Papers' — a form of writing for 
which he retained a liking, and which he prac- 
tised with great spirit and elegance to the last. 
Many of the exquisite passages of descriptions of 
nature were undoubtedly written by him. ' Mine 
Uncle John,' a mellow fine-toned portrait, was 
his work ; and he had a hand in 'Autumnal Re- 
flections,' one of the most refined, sentimental 
papers of the volume. It is perhaps a common 
misapprehension of this eminent writer, that his 
pen was wanting in geniality, and that he took a 
splenetic view of life. This notion has probably 
arisen from the admission of a controversial ele- 
ment into his productions, when, perhaps, it 
might have been better shut out ; but certainly, 
with this single exception, no American writer 
has spread upon his page more feeling observa- 
tions, more friendly truths, more genial sym- 
pathies. His favourite method of tlie apologue 
affords a kindly proof of this, which is not to be 
mistaken by those skilled in literary physiog- 
nomy." 

Mr. Paulding continued to attend faithfully to 
the business of his office, at the same time culti- 
vating the brilliant society of men of genius then 
growing up in New York City. Of that bright 
galaxy the last survivors were Gulian C. Ver- 
planck and Fitz-Greene Halleck. In 1813, having 
in the mean while written occasionally for the 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 1 37 

various periodicals, Paulding publislied his 
second work, "The Diverting History of John 
Bull and Brother Jonathan," in the style of 
Arbuthnot, in which England and the United 
States are represented as private individuals, 
father and son, engaged in a domestic quarrel. 
In this well-sustained allegory the policy and 
conduct of England towards this country is 
keenly but good-humoredly satirized, so much 
so that the whole work was republished in a 
British journal. It passed through numerous 
editions, one of which was illustrated by Jarvis, 
and may be considered among the most success- 
ful of Paulding's productions. It was followed 
during the same year by a parody on Scott's 
"Lay of the Last Minstrel," entitled "The Lay 
of the Scottish Fiddle," which appeared anony- 
mously, like most of Paulding's earlier writings. 
In this work, the raids of the British on Chesa- 
peake Bay are subjected to a stinging rebuke. 
The hero is Admiral Cockburn, and the principal 
incident the burning and sacking of Havre de 
Grace. An edition of this national satire was 
with the addition of a complimentary preface, 
published in London, and enjoyed what might 
be called the distinction of a severe castigation 
at the hands of a critic of the Quarterly Review. 
Our author's next work was a pamphlet in prose, 
"The United States and England," called forth 
by the strictures of the same periodical on 



138 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

"Inchiquin's Letters," by Charles J. Ingersoll. 
The design of the work was to expose the un- 
warrantable course of the Quarterly in drawing 
general conclusions from solitary examples, and 
for this purpose Paulding cites many instances 
from the newspapers of England and other 
sources, to show that if these are to be assumed 
as the standard of national morality or manners, 
the English are very far in advance of the Amer- 
icans in vulgarity, vice, and depravity. This 
clever brochure attracted the notice of President 
Madison, and paved the way for the subsequent 
political career of the author. 

After making a tour in Virginia in the year 
1816, he published "Letters from the South, by 
a Northern Man," in which he gives couleur de 
rose recollections of the scenery and society of 
the "Old Dominion." He occasionally digresses 
to other subjects, on which he delivers his opin- 
ions with his usual sturdy frankness. Soon after 
the appearance of this work he was appointed 
Secretary to the first Board of Navy Commis- 
sioners, consisting of Commodores Rodgers, 
Hull, and Porter. In 1818 Paulding published 
"The Backwoodsman," his most elaborate poeti- 
cal production, written in the heroic measure, 
and describing the fortunes of an emigrant and 
his family on removing from the banks of the 
Hudson to the Western wilderness, and closing 
with a glowing apostrophe to the author's native 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 1 39 

land. It belonged to the old school of poetry, 
and met with but a moderate sale, though a part 
of the poem was translated and published in 
Paris. 

Haileck, in "Fanny," which appeared in De- 
cember, 1819, thus elegantly and judiciously de- 
termines the relative merits of Homer and Pauld- 
fng as poets : 

" Homer was well enough ; but would he ever 
Have written, think ye, ' The Backwoodsman ' ? Never !" 

And in the concluding line of another stanza 
says : 

" The muse has damned him — let him damn the muse." 

We may add, in passing, that Paulding doubt- 
less during his long literary life devoted much 
time and strength to unpopular verse, to writ- 
ing anonymous articles and editorials on mis- 
cellaneous subjects for the Evenmg Post and 
other newspapers and magazines, and 

"To party gave up what was meant for mankind," 

by entering the field of political controversy. In 
1819, theyear of the poetical "Croakers," a second 
series of " Salmagundi " appeared, which was en- 
tirely from Paulding's pen. It failed to receive 
the cordial reception that greeted its predecessor. 
The "town" interest had diminished; the author 
was residing in Washington, engaged in official 



I40 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

duties; and the work was deficient in that buoy- 
ant spirit of vivacity which was one of the chief 
characteristics of the first series. 

The scene of Paulding's first novel, called 
•^'Koningsmarke/' which appeared in 1823, is 
laid among the early Swedish settlers on the 
Delaware. It was divided into separate books, 
each preceded by an introductory chapter, after 
the manner of Fielding's " Tom Jones." In 1825 
appeared "John Bull in America, or the New 
Munchausen," purporting to be the tour of an 
English traveller in the United States; and a 
year later "The Merry Tales of Three Wise 
Men of Gotham," a satire on the social system 
of Robert Owen, on the science of phrenology, 
and on the famous legal maxim, Caveat emptor, 
each exemplified in a separate story. The three 
wise men are introduced at sea, in the famous 
bowl, relating in turn their experience, with a 
view of dissipating the ennui oi the voyage. This 
was followed in 1828 by "The New Mirror for 
Travellers," a burlesque on the fashionable guide- 
books, and the works of English travellers in 
the United States. It was at first mistaken for 
a real itinerary, and on this account the title was 
somewhat irreverently changed to " The New 
Pilgrim's Progress." A number of stories are 
interspersed through the volume, which are cha- 
racteristic of Paulding's peculiar humours. His 
next productions were "Tales of the Good 



JAMES K. PAULDING. I4I 

Woman" and "Chronicles of the City of Goth- 
am," in which he gives what purports to be a 
translation of some curious old Dutch legends of 
New Amsterdam, but emanating exclusively from 
the fertile imagination of the author. 

In 1831 " The Dutchman's Fireside" was is- 
sued — a story, as the author informed me, found- 
ed on Mrs. Grant's charming descriptions of the 
manners of the old Dutch settlers, in her " Me- 
moirs of an American Lady." This novel is in 
Paulding's happiest vein, and is generally es- 
teemed his most successful production. It went 
through six editions in twice that number of 
months, was republished in London, and trans- 
lated into the Dutch and French languages. 
The writer met with a copy of the first American 
edition in the winter of 1882-3 in Northern Africa ! 
Miss Sedgwick has given us many charming pic- 
tures of primitive customs and feelings in New 
England ; Mrs. Kirkland described with great 
truthfulness the new homes of Michigan ; Judge 
Hall successfully delineated the border experi- 
ences of Illinois ; Doctor Bird has given us 
graphic sketches of pioneer life in Kentucky ; 
Kennedy portrayed life in the " Old Dominion ;" 
Simms has written many inimitable chapters con- 
cerning the early days of the Carolinas ; Judge 
Longstreet held a mirror up to nature in his 
humorous and graphic Georgia scenes ; and 
Thorpe lifted the veil from the lodge of the hun- 



142 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ter in the Southwest: but we may safely affirm 
that none of these local pictures surpass in 
minute truthfulness and interest Mr. Paulding's 
delightful sketches of colonial life in New York 
during the days of the French War, as described 
in "The Dutchman's Fireside. " It will not abuse 
any man's leisure to read this admirable descrip- 
tion of the genuine simplicity of life in New York 
a hundred and twenty-five years ago. Some of 
the old mansions of the Schuylers and Van Rens- 
selaers still remain with us ; but the actors and 
customs of those Doric days, to use a favourite 
phrase of our author, have passed away for ever. 
In the following year appeared " Westward, 
Ho!" the scene of which is principally laid in 
Kentucky, though the story is commenced in Vir- 
ginia. The characters are boldly and skilfully 
drawn : the " Old Dominion" planter who squan- 
ders his estate in prodigal hospitality, and then 
seeks a new home in the West ; Bashfield, an un- 
tamed hunter ; and Judith and Zeno Paddock, a 
pair of village inquisitors — are all actual and in- 
digenous beings. For the copyright of this work, 
and also for that of " The Dutchman's Fireside," 
the author received in each instance, on the de- 
livery of the manuscript, fifteen hundred dollars 
■ — a handsome sum for those days. In the year 
1867 a popular clergyman was paid nearly twice 
as many thousand for a similar performance. In 
1835 was published Paulding's admirable " Life of 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 143 

Washington," addressed to the youth of the coun- 
try, and constituting one of the most attractive 
personal sketches of General Washington ever 
written. The portrayal of his character, as 
summed up at the conclusion, is as just and com- 
plete as any we have ever met with. Paulding's 
next work, which appeared in 1836, when the 
Missouri question was greatly agitating the whole 
country, was on "Slavery in the United States." 
It is an unhesitating defence of the defunct insti- 
tution against every sort of religious, moral, and 
economical attack ; and had it emanated from 
the pen of his late Excellency, Jefferson Davis, or 
Robert Toombs of Georgia, could not have been a 
stouter pro-slavery production. 

In the year 1837, after having filled the office 
of Navy Agent at the port of New York for 
twelve years, embracing three administrations, 
he resigned the position to enter President Van 
Buren's Cabinet. In his determination to re- 
form abuses in the naval affairs of the country, 
and to be master of his Department, Mr. Pauld- 
ing naturally met with opposition in many quar- 
ters, and sometimes had occasion to make use of 
his practised pen. An affair that occuri'ed in 
1838 on board the Ohio, then the flagship of that 
unsurpassed sailor, Isaac Hull, called forth some 
sharp epistles to the young officers concerned, 
and some kindly letters to the old Commodore, 
''who has contributed," wrote Paulding, "as 



144 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

much as any other, living or dead, to raise them 
and their profession in the estimation of their 
country and the eyes of the world." 

There is a story related — I think it was from 
Halleck I first heard it — of a laconic correspond- 
ence between the Secretary and one of his sub- 
ordinates in Alabama who was in some way 
connected with the Navy Department. The brief 
and pithy communications, as I recall them, ran 
as follows : 

Washington, , 1838. 

Dear Sir : Please inform tthis Department by re- 
turn of mail how far the Tombigbee River runs up. 
Respectfully, J. K. Paulding. 

Mobile, ■, 1838. 

Sir : In reply to your letter inquiring how far the 
Tombigbee River runs up, I have the honor to inform 
you that the Tombigbee River don't run up at all. 

Very respectfully, , 

Hon. J. K. Paulding. 

Washington, , 1838. 

Sir : I have the honour of informing you that this 
Department has no further occasion for your services. 
Respectfully, J. K. Paulding. 

Halleck insisted upon it that this correspond- 
ence had been oificially published, and that when 
rallied on the subject by an intimate friend, 
Paulding, neither affirming nor denying its au- 
thenticity, passed it by, spying, " It was a very 
good story." * 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 145 

Soon after his retirement from the Navy De- 
partment, which he presided over with ability 
and fidelity, Paulding purchased a pleasant 
home in the country, and retired from public 
life. " Placentia," his rural retreat, is situated 
on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 
eight miles north of Poughkeepsie. The house 
stands near the highway — from which it is par- 
tially hidden by a number of noble trees — upon a 
natural terrace, from which descends an undulat- 
ing lawn to the river, nearly quarter of a mile dis- 
tant. The views from the piazza present a most 
attractive variety of scenery. To the north, look- 
ing over a rich, rolling country, now and then 
rising into lofty hills, the extensive prospect is 
closed in by the Catskill Mountains, in all their 
Alpine grandeur and beauty, at a distance of 
about thirty miles; and in the foreground, stand- 
ing in the centre of the river, is seen a small 
rocky island covered with evergreens, adding 
greatly to the picturesqueness of the view. 
Turning to the west, the eye rests upon the op- 
posite shore of the Hudson, rising abruptly in 
rocky precipices, crowned with rich, sloping, and 
highly cultivated land, dotted with cottages and 
country-seats, and extending back many miles to 
the base of wood-covered mountains, terminat- 
ing,, a mile or two to the north, in a high bluff, not 
unlike in outline and magnitude Anthony's Nose, 
in the Highlands. Adjoining "Placentia" on the 



146 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

south is the magnificent estate which once be- 
longed to Dr. Hosack, — then deemed one of the 
finest on the river, — which has been divided 
and passed into the possession of other families. 
The lines of our author had fallen in pleasant 
places. No poet could have pictured a lovelier 
retreat ; and here, amid the retirement of the 
country, surrounded by his children and grand- 
children, and some of the finest scenery of the 
Hudson, Mr. Paulding devoted himself to the 
congenial pursuits of agriculture and author- 
ship. Some of his magazine articles written 
during the years 1842 to 1846 are equal to any 
of the compositions of his best days. 

Writing from Placentia in January, 1846, to his 
friend William Wilson, the poet-publisher of 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Paulding says : " My sec- 
ond son, William, and myself, with a view to 
amusing our idle hours during the winter, will 
occasionally furnish the Telegraph with an article 
— not political, however; and as our dispatches 
might occasion some speculation among the 
quidnuncs of our village, I would like, if you 
will permit me to enclose them to you, if you 
will be good enough to throw them into the post- 
office at Poughkeepsie. If it will give you too 
much trouble, or if you have any scruples on the 
subject, pray let me know. I must ask you to 
be discreet, as half the pleasure will be in secrecy." 

In 1847 appeared a new novel from his pen, 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 1 47 

entitled "The Old Continental; or, The Price 
of Liberty," a Revolutionary story, distinguished 
by all of Paulding's peculiarities of manner and 
spirit. The same year was published a volume of 
"American Comedies," by J. K. and his second 
son William Irving Paulding, only the first of 
which, called " The Bucktails ; or. The Ameri- 
cans in England," was written by the father. 
In 1849 was issued "The Puritan and his Daugh- 
ter," the scene of which is partly in England and 
partly in the United States. This, the last of his 
novels, is not equal to some of the earlier ones, 
nor did it meet with the same success. 

Concerning the preparation for the press of 
"The Puritan and His Daughter," the author 
writes in October, 1848, to his friend Wilson, who 
negotiated with the " Philistines" for its publica- 
tion : 

" I have delayed coming down to Poughkeepsie in 

the expectation of hearing from and , who 

have not yet answered my letter inquiring if they would 
take my MS. on the original terms, providing I made 
it of the required length. It is possible my letter may 
have miscarried, but I don't wish to repeat the offer, 
and beg you will, when you next go to town, inquire 
whether they have received it. If they answer yes, 
please tell them that is all I wished to know, and say- 
nothing more on the subject. Having declined ' fur- 
ther negotiation on the subject,' they may think me im- 
portunate in the matter, and I therefore wish you simply 
to ask the question whether my letter was received. 



148 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

" P. S. I recollect in my letter I spoke jestingly of 
'spoiling my work.' Perhaps they took me in earnest, 
not being aware that I value what little reputation I 
have acquired too much to risk it in publishing a 
'spoiled' work. When you have ascertained whether 
my letter came to hand, pray drop me a line." 

{To William Wilson^ 

Hyde Park, Dutchess County, 
Dec, 17, 1848. 

Dear Sir: Having nothing to do in the farming 
way this winter, I have undertaken to splice the " Puri- 
tan's Daughter," as they do steamboats, by cutting them 
in two, and putting a piece in the middle. With 
dovetailing here a little, loitering by the way, and 
stopping now and then to have a talk like Cooper, I 
shall be able to stretch it to the proper dimensions, 
I hope, without doing it much damage. Indeed I think 
on the whole, it will rather be improved. It will cost 
me, however, more labor than writing it in the first in- 
stance. It will make two volumes, such as " The Old 
Continental," perhaps a little larger. 

When you go to New York, and get among the trade, 
I wish you would see what kind of arrangement (for 
cash) you can make with those Philistines. I could 
have it ready in about a month, and should not be easily 
induced to take less for it than the old price agreed on 
by and , Had they not declined all further ne- 
gotiation on the subject, in so careless a style, I should 
have held myself bound to offer the work on the old 
footing, but as it is, I don't think I owe them the com- 
pliment. 

Pray let me have a few lines from you reporting 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 149 

progress, when you make any, as I don't expect to visit 
Poughkeepsie till spring. 

I am, dear sir, yours very truly, 

J. K. Paulding. 
P. S. Screw as much out of those rogues as you 
can, as I contemplate some great agricultural experi- 
ments next spring. 

To a party of gentlemen, including William 
Gilmore Simms and the brothers Duyckinck, who 
while on a visit to Mr. Wilson, in Poughkeepsie, 
during the summer of 1854, drove to Hyde Park 
with their host to dine with Mr. Paulding, he 
gave the following description of his way of life: 
" I smoke a little, read a little, write a little, ru- 
minate a little, grumble a little, and sleep a great 
deal. I was once great at pulling up weeds, to 
which I have a mortal antipathy, especially bull's- 
eyes, wild carrots, and toad-flax, a//aj- butter-and- 
eggs. But my working days are almost over. 
I find that carrying seventy-five years on my 
shoulders is pretty nearly equal to the same num- 
ber of pounds ; and instead of labouring myself, 
I sit in the shade watching the labours of others, 
which I find quite sufficient exercise." 

Writing to a friend in September, 1858, this 
member of the " Old Guard " of American lite- 
rature expresses peculiar opinions on the subject 
of the Atlantic cable and international copyright. 
Mr. Paulding says : 

"You wish my opinion of the International Copy- 



ISO BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

right Law. I will give it frankly in as few words as 
possible. My opinion is, that, like the submarine 
cable, it will be decidedly disadvantageous to this coun- 
try and highly advantageous to England ; that where 
one American writer secures any emolument from it 
in England, twenty British authors will partake of the 
benefits of this law in the United States, and that it 
will greatly injure the national literature by tempting 
American authors to write for England instead of their 
own country. No truly republican sentiments will ever 
find favour among English booksellers or book-pur- 
chasers. It will therefore be for the interest of our 
writers who expect patronage in that country or any 
portion of Europe to be as loyal as possible, and to sink 
the republican. We have too much of this already, 
and I cannot approve any measure I think calculated 
to render our literature more subservient to British 
criticism than it has long been and still continues. I 
am sorry to differ from, I believe, all my contempo- 
raries ; but you asked me for my opinion, and I have 
given it frankly." 

He adds incidentally : " Meaning no disrespect 
to you or your father, uglier and more sodden- 
faced knaves than the people of that town I never 
saw ;" and then with much amusement alluded 
to the substantial citizen who, on the occasion 
of a celebration in honour of Scotland's greatest 
poet, asked, " Who is this man Burns that Wilson 
and his friends are making such a fuss about ?" 

Paulding himself was no poet. Almost the 
only lines written by him which anybody remem- 
bers are the familiar — 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 151 

" Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; 
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. 
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, 
Where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked ? " 

These problematic lines still survive in popular 
memory and in the children's books, and maybe 
found where they originally appeared, in " Kon- 
ingsraarke, the Long Finne," a quiz on the ro- 
mantic school of Sir Walter Scott, mentioned on 
page 140. 

The last time the writer saw the venerable au- 
thor was in the month of August, 1858 ; the place, 
his own beautiful home. An hour or two after 
our arrival he came in, having been, as was his 
custom in summer-time, takinga morning ramble 
over his grounds, and enjoying the delicious 
odour of the new-mown hay. " Sometimes," said 
he, "I saunter out of a morning after breakfast, 
and, seated under the shady side of some old tree, 
spend half the day looking at the hills and the 
Hudson, and observing the labours of my men — 
particularly during the harvest season. For the 
last two or three hours," he added, " I have been 
down in the meadows from which you saw me 
approaching, looking at the haymakers." Dur- 
ing my visit he dilated with evident pleasure 
upon "the good old times," and upon the giants 
of those days — the Clays, Calhouns, and Web- 
sters — compared with whom the statesmen of 
the present day were mere Liliputians. Like 



152 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

most elderly gentlemen of threescore and up- 
wards, Mr. Paulding was an unyielding conser- 
vative, and thought the world sometimes made 
retrograde as well as forward marches. The vete- 
ran litterateur wSiS a man of strong prejudices, chief 
among which was an intense antipathy to England 
and Englishmen. By an easy transition from 
discussing the affairs of this country, he took up 
the affairs of John Bull ; and such a castigation 
as perfidious Albion and her statesmen received 
was perfectly terrific. His hatred of England, 
visible in his writings as it was in his conversation, 
was a marked characteristic of the man, for an 
explanation of which we must remember that he 
was born in the days that tried men's souls — that 
his family had suffered injustice and great cruel- 
ties at the hands of the British and Hessian in- 
vaders. The feelings of bitter animosity towaiids 
England, which he drank in with his mother's 
milk, he carried with him into his winding-sheet. 
While speaking of personal matters, he re- 
marked: "The world has not done me justice as 
an author. I shall leave my works to posterity 
and to my son William, who can do what he 
thinks best with them." In answer to my in- 
quiry why he did not cause "The Dutchman's 
Fireside," and other of his earlier works, which 
were quite out of the market, to be reprinted, he 
replied that it was owing to some misunderstand- 
ing with his publishers, concerning the whole 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 153 

race of whom he seemed to think with Tom 
Campbell, that Napoleon was to be venerated by 
all authors for having shot one of the fraternity. 
He pointed out a fine likeness of himself in water- 
colours, painted, when he was about thirty-five 
years of age, by Joseph Wood, an American ar- 
tist. In reply to the question as to whether that 
or any other portrait had been engraved, he said : 
"I would never consent to have any portrait en- 
graved for the periodicals. While I was Secre- 
tary of the Navy, the publisher of tlie Democratic 

i?m(?7e/ wanted to put in one of his d scurvy, 

lampblack portraits of me." Among other pic- 
tures, in the drawing-room, filled with fine old 
furniture was a copy of Peale's Washington, and 
the Capture of Major Andre; and three noble 
busts — Napoleon by Canova, Americus and Co- 
lumbus, sent to Madison's son-in-law, "from 
whom I purchased them," said Paulding, Speak- 
ing of New York, he said: "I have been down 
but once in ten years, and rarely go farther from 
home than Poughkeepsie, to visit your father." 
Such were some of the "whim-whams and opin- 
ions of Launcelot Langstaff," at the age of four- 
score, which I greatly regret that I cannot give 
altogether in his own pithy and pointed language. 
As I drove from the door I saw him seated on 
his broad piazza, with one of his beautiful grand- 
children standing on each side of his easy-chair, 
and his last words as he lifted his hat to his part- 



154 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ing guests were: "A pleasant journey back to 
your Western home !" I never saw him again. 

Mr. Paulding having during my visit ex- 
pressed a desire to see a new work concerning 
Chicago, to which some allusion had been made 
in our conversation, and having, he said, visited 
the West in company with his friend Mr. Van 
Buren in 1842, and for that reason, among others, 
felt an interest in the growing city, I sent him 
the volume entitled "Waubunj or, The Early 
Day in the Northwest," and soon after received 
from him the following acknowledgment: 

Hyde Park, Dutchess County, 
September 16, 1858. 
My dear Sir: 

I thank you for the copy of Mrs. Kinzie's most 
agreeable and interesting work, which I have read with 
great pleasure. Of all the pictures of border-life, all 
the sketches of the progress of the great wave of civi- 
lization, which is rolling over the Western world, I 
have met with, this is the most pleasant, natural, and 
graphic. There is no attempt to exaggerate, every- 
thing is told with perfect simplicity, and what possesses 
all the interest of romance, given in the sober colouring 
of truth as ordinary adventure. The character of the 
writer shines everywhere, and exhibits features which, 
I fear, are not now very common to the sex. It is 
worth something to see a well-educated and accom- 
plished woman marching in the van of society faithful 
to her conjugal engagements; accompanying her hus- 
band through the perils of the wilderness of wild and 



JAMES K. PAULDING. 155 

savage men, more revengeful than generous, meeting 
them without shrinking, enduring them without com- 
plaint, and describing them with such a gay and gal- 
lant indiflference to things which women are apt to 
consider as of all others the most important. I should 
like to see such a woman, and might be tempted to pay 
a visit to Chicago for that purpose, were I forty years 
younger. 

I was struck with the phenomenon of a volume so 
elegant as that you sent me being published at a spot 
w.hich some thirty years ago was as much a wilderness 
as the interior of Africa. Such things never hapened 
in any other country. If you are in the habit of see- 
ing Mrs. Kinzie, pray present my thanks for the 
pleasure her work has given me. 

I am, dear sir^ your friend and servant, 

J. K. Paulding. 

The echoes of the eloquent eulogies wreathed 
by Bryant and Everett round the name of Wash- 
ington Irving, at the New York Academy of 
Music, in the presence of a distinguished assem- 
bly of thousands, on the 3d of April, i860, had 
scarcely reached the home of his comrade and 
contemporary, Paulding, when he too was called 
away to 

" Those everlasting gardens 
Where angels walk, an cf seraphs are the wardens;" 

and it requires no stretch of fancy to imagine 
that he only lingered to gather up and carry 
to his friend the grateful homage of their com- 
mon country. The hand of Spring was laid on 



156 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the elder, whom Winter had spared. Paulding 
passed away peacefully early on the evening 
of the 6th of April, having " by reason of 
strength," attained to more than fourscore years, 
and died, like his life-long friend Irving, in the 
peace of his own happy home, surrounded by 
those who were most near and dear to him. A 
few days later his remains were interred in Green- 
wood Cemetery, near New York. 

Under the title of " Literary Life of James K. 
Paulding," his son William Irving gave to the 
world in 1867 an interesting record and picture, 
not only of his father, but of many of his early 
associates of the Salmagundi days, — Gouverneur 
Kemble, Henry Brevoort, Ebenezer, William, and 
Washington Irving, Harry Ogden, and other 
''good fellows," who some seventy-five years ago 
had charming frolics at "Cockloft Hall." This 
volume was followed by four others containing 
such of Paulding's writings as his son and lit- 
erary executor deemed most worthy of preserva- 
tion. Thus by the aid of extracts from his au- 
tobiography, correspondence, essays, and other 
works we see the career of M.r, Paulding as an 
author and a public man, and we are convinced 
that he is entitled to his son's honourable me- 
morial by his constant love of nature, his hearty 
patriotism, and his characteristic originality. 




Kl ^ 




WASHINGTON IRVING. 



1783-1859. 



The career of the charming and amiable 
Washington Irving is so familiar to every Ame- 
rican, that a very few biographical details will 
perhaps suffice for our present purpose. He 
was born in William Street, New York, April 3, 
1783, and at the age of sixteen began the study 
of law, being admitted to the bar in 1806 ; but, 
like Bryant, he soon abandoned the profession. 

Before he was twenty-one, having previously 
devoted a good deal of time to his dog and gun, 
and made his first voyage up the Hudson as 
far as Albany, Irving had published a series 
of articles over the signature of "Jonathan Old- 
style." They appeared in the Morning Chronicle 
of New York, edited by his elder brother, Dr. 
Peter Irving. Possessing a pair of lungs which 
were not supposed to promise a prolonged life, 
he spent two years in foreign travel, chiefly in 
the South of Europe, for the benefit of his health. 
" As I went on board the ship," said Irving to the 
writer, *' the captain remarked to the mate. 



158 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

* There's a chap that we shall have to throw 
overboard before we get across ! ' " 

Soon after Irving's return from the Old World 
he formed a literary partnership with his brother 
William and J. K. Paulding, the fruit of which ap- 
peared in " Salmagundi : or, The Whim-Whams 
and other opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq., 
and Others," January 1807, to January 1808. 
One year later " Knickerbocker's History of New 
York" was published. It was commenced by 
Irving, in company with Dr. Peter, with the pur- 
pose of parodying a handbill which had just ap- 
peared, entitled "A Picture of New York." The 
latter's departure for Europe left it in the hands 
of his brother Washington, by whom it was com- 
pleted. The humour of this racy work is irre- 
sistible; and it is related of a grave judge that 
in the course of an important case he suddenly 
exploded over some laughter-compelling pas- 
sage of the work, which he had smuggled with 
him to the bench. 1 " Already," pathetically 
writes the author, in concluding this delightful 
work, " has withering age showered his sterile 
snows upon my brow ; in a little while, and this 
genial warmth which still lingers around my 
heart, and throbs, worthy reader, throbs kindly 
towards thyself, will be chilled for ever. Hap- 
pily, this frail compound of dust, which while 
alive may have given birth to naught but un- 
profitable weeds, may form a humble sod of the 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 59 

valley, whence may spring many a sweet wild- 
flower to adorn my beloved island of Manna- 
hatta." 

Of Irving's other well-known writings, a noble 
series, fitly concluded by his admirable " Life of 
Washington," completed in 1859, it is unneces- 
sary to speak: to enumerate or criticise them is 
needless, and would be a plagiarism from the 
stores of universal memory. One of these 
works, in which he relates the romantic stories 
of Grenada, the writer had the pleasure of re- 
reading, in part, in the winter of 1883, in the 
sunny apartment of the Alhambra in which the 
delightful volume was written, and of conclud- 
ing it in the Washington Irving Hotel, adjoin- 
ing the ancient Moorish Palace. Of Irving's 
works, including the well-written life, by his 
nephew, Pierre M. Irving, more than a million 
of volumes have been sold in this country, and 
probably as many more in Great Britain and 
other portions of the Old World, where they are 
only less known and admired than in his native 
land. Before sharing with my readers some 
personal recollections of a day with Washington 
Irving, in September, 1857, I will quote a few 
lines from an essay by Richard Henry Dana. 
" Amiableness," wrote Mr. Dana, "is so strongly 
marked in all Mr. Irving's writings as never to 
let you forget the man , and the pleasure is 
doubled in the same happy manner as it is in 



lOO BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

lively conversation with one for whom you have 
a deep attachment and esteem." Lowell, de- 
scribing him in verse, wrote : 

" To a true poet heart add the fun of Dick Steele; 
Throw in all of Addison, minus the chill. 
With the whole of that partnership, stock, and good-will ; 
Mix well, and while stirring, hum o'er as a spell, 
' The fine old English gentleman ; ' simmer it well. 
Sweeten just to your own private liking, then strain. 
That only the finest and clearest remain ; 
Let it stand out of doors till a soul it receives 
From the warm lazy sun, loitering down through green 

leaves, 
And you'll find a choice nature, not wholly deserving 
A name either English or Yankee — just Irving." 

It was a sunny September morning that the 
writer set out from New York in an early train, 
on a visit to Sunnyside and its late honoured pro- 
prietor — almost the last of the great literary 
lights that witnessed the dawn of the nineteenth 
century. Of his eminent contemporaries who 
ushered in the reign of the last of the Georges, 
but four survived him — Dana, De Quincey, Lan- 
dor, and Paulding, — and they, full of years and 
then trembling on the horizon's verge, have 
since been gathered to their fathers. 

Arrived at Irvington we procured the only 
attainable vehicle the place could boast of, — an 
old, shaky, two-seated, box waggon, drawn by a 
steed bearing a striking resemblance to Geoffrey 
Crayon's descriptions of the charger bestrode by 



WASHINGTON IRVING. l6l 

the enraptured pedagogue on the occasion of 
the famous gathering at Mynheer Van Tassel's, 
— and were in due time set down at the porch of 
Sunnyside, pleasantly situated on the banks of 
the river where its owner thanked God he was 
born. The quaint-looking mansion is a grace- 
ful combination of the English cottage and 
Dutch farm-house, covered with ivy brought 
from Melrose Abbey, and embowered amid trees 
and shrubbery. A venerable weathercock of 
portly dimensions, which once covered the Stadt- 
House of New Amsterdam, in the time of worthy 
Peter Stuyvesant, erects its crest on the gable 
end of the edifice, and a gilded horse in full gal- 
lop, whilom the weathercock of a valiant burgo- 
master of Albany, glitters in the sunshine on a 
peaked turret over the portal. 

From the tranquil and secluded abode are 
visible the " Tappaan Zee" and the picturesque 
Palisades, and various paths lead through 
shadowy walks, or to points commanding fine 
views of river scenery. Near by murmurs a 
musical stream. A more charming retreat for a 
poet's old age it would be difficult to find, inde- 
pendent of the thousand delightful associations 
that enhanced its beauties to the mind of Wash- 
ington Irving. 

The simplicity of the interior arrangement 
struck me as characteristic of the simple and 
unperverted tastes of its owner, and its cottage 



1 62 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ornaments were suggestive of his delightful pic- 
tures of English country life. Entering by a 
rustic doorway, covered with climbing roses, and 
passing through a tiled hall, you enter the draw- 
ing-room, alow-roofed apartment, on the walls of 
which hung the Jarvis portrait, painted when 
Mr. Irving was twenty-seven years of age ; an 
engraving of Faed's picture of Scott and his 
friends at Abbotsford, presented to him b)^ a son 
of Sir Walter Scott's eminent publisher, Archi- 
bald Constable; together with several other 
paintings and engravings, and well filled with 
parlour furniture, a piano, and tables covered 
with books and magazines of the day. 

The family at that time consisted of the bache- 
lor author, who had ''no termagant wife to dis- 
pute the sovereignty of the Roost" with him ; 
his eldest brother, Ebenezer, ten years his senior; 
a nephew, Pierre M. Irving, and his wife ; and 
two nieces, daughters of the brother above men- 
tioned, who were ever ministering to the slightest 
wish of their honoured uncle. Children could 
not have been more kind and considerate to a 
parent, nor a father to his daughters, than was 
the warm-hearted old man to his nieces, who 
alone of that happy circle now survive, and are 
the present possessors of Sunnyside. 

As I sat at his board in the dining-room, from 
which is seen the majestic Hudson with its 
myriad of sailing-vessels and steamers, and heard 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 63 

him dilate upon the bygone days and the giants 
that were on the earth then — of his friends Scott 
and Byron, of Moore and Lockhart, of Prof. 
Wilson and the Ettrick Shepherd ; and as the old 
man pledged the health of his kinsfolk and guest, 
it seemed as if a veritable realm of romance 
were suddenly opened. He told us of his first 
meeting with Sir Walter Scott, so graphically 
described in his charming essay on Abbotsford ; 
and his last, in London, when the great Scotch- 
man was on his way to the Continent with the 
vain hope of restoring his health, broken down 
by his gigantic efforts to leave an untarnished 
name and a fantastic mansion and the broad 
acres that surrounded it to a long line of Scotts 
of Abbotsford ; with various anecdotes of those 
above mentioned, and other notables of bygone 
days. 

Mr. Irving related with great glee an anecdote 
of James Hogg, the " Ettrick Shepherd," who in 
one of his early visits to Edinburgh was invited 
by Sir Walter Scott to dine with him at his 
mansion in Castle Street. Quite a number of 
the literati had been asked to meet the rustic 
poet at dinner. When Hogg entered the draw- 
ing-room. Lady Scott, being in delicate health, 
was reclining on a sofa. After being presented, 
he took possession of another sofa opposite to 
her, and stretched himself thereupon at full 
length, for, as he afterwards said, " I thought I 



164 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

could do no wrong to copy the lady of the house." 
The dress of the "Ettrick Shepherd" at that 
time was precisely that in which any ordinary 
herdsman attends cattle to the market, and as 
his hands, moreover, bore most legible marks of 
a recent sheep-shearing, the lady of the house 
did not observe with perfect equanimity the 
novel usage to which her chintz was exposed. 
Hogg, however, remarked nothing of all this — 
dined heartily and drank freely, and by jest, 
anecdote, and song afforded great merriment 
to all the company. As the wine operated his 
familiarity increased and strengthened ; from 
"Mr. Scott" he advanced to " Shirra" [Sheriff], 
and thence to "Scott," "Walter," and "Wattle," 
until at length he fairly convulsed the whole 
party by addressing Lady Scott as "Charlotte." 
In reply to our inquiry as to his opinion of the 
poets of the present day, Irving said, "I ignore 
them all. I read no poetry written since Byron's, 
Moore's, and Scott's." "What!" I exclaimed, 
"not Paulding's 'Backwoodsman'?" Where- 
upon he laughed most heartily, and answered, 
"Well, if I did, I should take it in homoeopathic 
doses." This was followed by some friendly 
praise of Paulding's prose writings, including 
"The Dutchman's Fireside." This led me to 
allude to Mrs. Grant's " Memoirs of an American 
Lady." " Oh yes," he answered, " I knew your 
gifted godmother, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, but 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 65 

only slightly. Our friends Cogswell and Tick- 
nor* were much more intimate with her than it 
was my good fortune to be. Her account of 
Mrs. Schuyler is a very pleasant one, and I be- 
lieve, as you say, that it suggested ' The Dutch- 
man's Fireside ' to Paulding." After some pleas- 
ant words about liis former literary partner and 
some of the younger members of the literary 
guild, the elderly author said, "He and I were 
very fortunate in being born so early. We 
should have no chance now against the battal- 
ions of better writers." He alluded in terms of 
the highest admiration to Motley's " History of 
the Dutch Republic," and in the same connection 
complained, " There are a great deal too many 
books written nowadays about countries, and 
places, and people, that when I was young no 
one knew, or wanted to have any knowledge of 
whatever; and it is morally impossible for any 
mortal to read or digest one half of them." 

Referring to some foreign artists, several of 
whom I had met while abroad two years previ- 
ous, Irving, in mentioning his particular friend 

L , said, ** His wife was a person who always 

reminded me of a creaking door," in allusion to 
her habit of constant complaining and fault- 
finding. "When you visit London again you 

*Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell of New York, and George 
Ticknor of Boston, author of a " History of Spanish 
Literature." 



l66 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

must take a note from me to John Murray in 
Albemarle Street, and look at the fine collection 
in his large drawing-room of portraits of lite- 
rary celebrities, Byron, Campbell, Coleridge, 
Southey, Moore, and many others whose works 
he issued. If you are in Scotland you will see 
at Blackwoods', the Edinburgh publishers, some 
equally fine pictures by Sir John Watson Gor- 
don, of Scott, Lockhart, the Ettrick Shepherd, 
and Professor Wilson ; and do not forget to 
look at the hole in the carpet made by Christo- 
pher North with his cudgel when discussing 
literary topics with his confreres of Blackwood' s 
Magazine y The writer did not forget Irving's 
advice. At Murray's he saw two admirable por- 
traits of Irving himself, which have never been 
engraved, and at the Blackwoods' a notable por- 
trait of George Eliot, in addition to those men- 
tioned above ; also the curious carpet souvenir of 
Christopher North. 

Irving related some pleasant anecdotes of Sir 
David Wilkie, and referred to the happy hours 
he had spent in early life with Washington 
Allston, John Vanderlyn, Charles Robert Leslie, 
and Gilbert Stuart Newton. " Have you ever," 
he asked, '' seen a little picture painted by New- 
ton, called 'The Dull Lecture'?" As I had 
seen the charming little work, and told him I 
had also seen some manuscript lines concerning 
it written by a gentleman named Irving, he was 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 67 

not a little surprised, as well as pleased. The 
picture was purchased at the sale of the Philip 
Hone collection, and is now in the gallery of the 
Lenox Library of New York. For the better 
understanding of the lines, written at the request 
of his friend Newton, it may be stated that the 
painting represents an old philosopher reading 
from a folio, to a young beauty who is asleep on 
a chair at the other side of the table. It is a 
fine summer's day, and the warm atmosphere is 
let in through the open casement. The picture 
was much admired by Irving. The verses are 
as follows : 

" Frostie age, frostie age, 
Vain all thy learning; 
Drowsie page, drowsie page, 
Ever more turning. 

" Young head no lore will heed, 
Young heart's a reckless rover. 
Young beauty, while you read. 
Sleeping dreams of absent lover." 

Something led Irving to allude to a friend of 
his youth named Gratz of Philadelphia, whose 
sister. Miss Rebecca Gratz, it has been said, was 
the original of one of the heroines of " Ivanhoe," 
Observing a notice recently of the death of this 
gentleman,* I wrote to ask when Sir Walter 

* Mr. Benjamin Gratz, aged ninety-two, the last survivor 
of a large family, died at Lexington, Ky., in March, 1884. 
His sister passed away in Philadelphia in 1869. aged eighty 
eight years. 



1 68 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

had met her. In answer I received a letter from 
her niece, dated April, 1884, giving the follow- 
ing interesting particulars : 

" Mr. Irving was intimate with the Gratz family, and 
when visiting Philadelphia in early life, made their 
house liis home. Miss Rebecca Gratz and Miss Ma- 
tilda Hoffman of New York, the lady to whom Irving 
was engaged, were devoted friends, and during Miss 
Hoffman's last sickness Miss Gratz was by her side and 
closed her eyes in death. This devotion strengthened 
the strong ties already existing between Irving and the 
Gratz family, although no mention is made of them in 
the life of the admired author. When, a few years 
later, Irving and Scott became friends, the former 
spoke in such warm terms of the beauty and many 
accompHshmentsof the lovely Jewess, and her strength 
of faith in her religious belief, that Sir Walter selected 
her as one of his heroines under her own name of 
.Rebecca." 

After a little conversation concerning Colum- 
bus and his companions, and Stratforti-upon- 
Avon, which I had recently visited, Mr. Irving 
made the interesting remark : " If we can in an- 
other world meet and recognize the illustrious 
men who have gone before us, I think I should 
most wish to see and speak with him whom 
Halleck happily calls 

' The world-seeking Genoese,' 

and ' the myriad-minded Shakespeare.' " 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 69 

Many memorials of Irving, I may mention, are 
to be met with at that pleasant Warwickshire 
village which he has so delightfully described ; 
and in many parts of Spain his portraits are to 
be seen. Of course his life of Columbus and 
the three Spanish books which followed it at 
brief intervals are well known in that country, 
and when I spoke of them to the young King he 
exclaimed, " O yes, we all know of Washington 
Irving, and his works about Spain." 

In none of the many Irving bibliographies 
which have come under my notice have I met 
with any mention of an edition of his writings in 
my possession published in Paris in i834byBau- 
dry, and containing all his writings [down] to 
that date, together with a well- written memoir 
and a fine steel portrait from the picture by John 
Wesley Jarvis. The volume is a large double- 
column octavo of 1295 pages, including among 
its contents Irving and Paulding's "Salma- 
gundi." Apropos of portraits, in speaking of 
several of his own, including the quaint full- 
length engraving which appeared in Fraser's 
Magazine, he said, '' When you have your por- 
trait painted, avoid as much as possible the 
stiffness which our modern dress always gives 
to a picture, by throwing a cloak or shawl over 
one shoulder, or by wearing a coat with a fur 
collar, such as you see in my portrait by Jarvis." 

Alluding to a journey he had made the pre- 



170 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

vious season, during which he passed Hyde Park, 
the residence of his nephew, Henry Van Wart, 
and other relatives, without stopping, he re- 
marked, " My haste to sit under my own roof-tree 
again overcame all natural feelings of affection;" 
and he alluded to an event that occurred nearly 
half a century since, as having taken place " but 
a handful of years ago." 

Returning to the drawing-room, Mr. Irving 
sat down in his favourite seat, a large, well- 
cushioned and capacious arm-chair, and as we 
called his attention to Faed's picture of many of 
his old friends, and asked his opinion of it and 
its correctness, he leaned his head on one hand, 
as represented in the admirable portrait by Mar- 
tin prefixed to the illustrated edition of the 
"Sketch-Book," and with the same dreamy look, 
surveying it lovingly, replied that " they were 
mostly 'old familiar faces,' and some of them 
very good, Scott's, Wilson's, and Campbell's be- 
ing the best," and spoke of Prof. Wilson as 
being "a noble-looking man, with a considerable 
resemblance to our Audubon." 

His sanctum sanctorum was a small room, well 
filled with books, neatly arranged on the shelves, 
that extended completely around the room. In 
the centre stood a table, with a neat writing- 
desk, on which, seated in the well-lined easy 
elbow-chair, Geoffrey Crayon had written many 
of his modern works, including his " Life of 



WASHINGTON IRVING. I7I 

Washington." His hours for literary labour 
were in the morning, *' but," said he, "unlike 
Scott, I can do no work until I get breakfast, and 
it is between breakfast and dinner that I do all 
my writing." He appeared gratified at our al- 
lusion to the fact that Niagara and Irving were 
the two topics connected with this country in 
which we found intelligent Englishmen, or rather 
Britons, most interested during our sojourn 
there the previous season, and also at my reference 
to a letter written hy Scott to his friend John 
Richardson, of London, dated Sept. 22, 1817, a 
few days after Irving's visit to Abbotsford, in 
which Scott says, "When you see Tom Camp- 
bell, tell him, with my best love, that I have to 
thank him for making me known to Mr. Wash- 
ington Irving, who is one of the best and pleas- 
antest acquaintances I have made this many a 
day." 

In strolling over his charming grounds, we 
came upon those of his opulent neighbour, Mr. 
Moses H. Grinnell, who married a niece of Mr. 
Irving, which were kept in the most perfect order, 
when he remarked, "My place in its rough and 
uncultivated condition sets off finely my neigh- 
bour Grinnell's ;" and on my replying that I 
thought it was precisely the reverse, he indulged 
in a quiet laugh, and looked very much as if he 
quite agreed with me. He alluded to Scott's 
passion for the possession of land, and mentioned 



1/2 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

that it was a prevalent disease among authors 
generally, and confessed to being himself a vic- 
tim ; and further remarked that he quite agreed 
with Pope, in thinking " no man was so happy 
as he who lived retired from the world on his 
own soil." 

On our return we found a party of five ladies 
and gentlemen, under the escort of a relative, who 
had come up from New York to see " Diedrich 
Knickerbocker" and his loved domain. Upon 
returning from a ramble over the grounds and 
those of Mr. Grinnell with the Southern party 
and the Misses Irving, we found the amiable au- 
thor upon the front porch gazing over the river 
and the distant hills at the setting sun, the tout 
ensemble presenting a fine scene for a painter. 
I shall never forget it ; the mild, dreamy, and 
happy expression of that old man's countenance 
as he sat with his shawl around him looking over 
the broad Tappaan Zee at the sun's departing 
rays. I never saw him again. 

Among a few precious souvenirs received from 
authors and poets whose friendship it has been 
our privilege to enjoy, there is one that possesses, 
perhaps, more value in our eyes than any, and 
that is a volume entitled the "Sketch-Book," on 
a fly-leaf of which is inscribed the present 
writer's name, with the words, "from his friend, 
Washington Irving, Sunnyside, September i8, 
1857." 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 173 

In place of any extracts from the few brief 
notes addressed to the writer by Irving, I will 
introduce a letter now lying before me from the 
pen of the poet Rogers (1763-1855): 

"A thousand thanks, my dear Irving, for all your 
letters, but more especially for your last, not only for 
the account it gave me of yourself and your doings, 
but because it brought me a delightful companion, 
and one in the most splendid attire, one not to come 
and to leave me in spite of all my solicitations to 
stay a little longer, such as those you had before 
introduced to me, but to remain with me as long as 
I live. With Mr. Halleck's poems I was already ac- 
quainted, particularly with the two first in the volume, 
and I cannot say how much I admired them always. 
They are better than anything we can do just now on 
this side of the Atlantic, and I hope he will not be idle, 
but continue to delight us as often as you have done, 
and will I hope long continue to do. When Halleck 
comes here again he must not content himself with 
looking at the outside of my house, as I am told he did 
once, but knock and ring, and ask for me as an old 
acquaintance. I should say, indeed, if I am here to be 
found ; for if he or you, my dear friend, delay your com- 
ing much longer, I shall have no hope of seeing either 
of you on this side of the grave. You say you are 
building a house : this looks ill for us ; but when you 
have roofed it in, and looked once or twice out of the 
windows, perhaps you will think of us before we are 
all gone, and I among the first. 

Pray, remember me very affectionately to Mr. and 



174 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Mrs. McLane,* and also assure Mr. Van Buren f when 
you see him how much we are all delighted with his 
election. I regret that I saw so little of him when he 
was here, but I think with some pride that he, as well 
as other Presidents, was once my guest. I have little 
more to add than to say again, "Pray come and come 
soon, or I shall not be the better of your visit. 

Yours ever, Samuel Rogers. 

St. James Place, February 20, 1837. 

" I am delighted with Mr. Duer. He is just now at 
Paris, but promises to make his appearance here again 
before the May-flowers." 

Washington Irving died suddenly, of disease 
of the heart, on Monday evening, November 28, 
1859. He was fond of retirement, and found his 
greatest pleasure in the amenities of domestic 
life. In him the poor lost a kind benefactor, and 
his neighbours a devoted friend. He w^as ever 
ready to encourage his fellow-labourers in the 
walks of literature, and many a cheery word has 
the young aspirant for fame heard from his lips. 
For ten years he had been a communicant of the 
Church, and for the last six years of his peace- 
ful life a warden of Christ Church, Tarrytown. 
On the Sunday before his death he was in his 
accustomed place at church, although it was re- 



* Louis McLane, American Minister to the Court of St. 
James during the years 1829-1831. 

f Martin Van Buren, President of the United States. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 1/5 

marked by several persons in the congregation 
that he appeared more pallid and feeble than 
usual, and it was also noticed that he did not 
wait, after the services were over, as was his cus- 
tom, to shake hands with his friends and neigh- 
bours, but immediately hastened home. 

In the evening of life, surrounded by those 
that were near and dear — with " troops of 
friends," — good Iiealth — an income derived from 
his literary labours, more than sufficient for the 
modest wants of his household — with a name 
honoured wherever our language is spoken, and 
without a single hostile voice being raised against 
him, he certainly presented a beautiful picture 
of a serene and happ}'' old age. The traditionary 
recollection of his early life is burdened with no 
stain of any sort, and his whole career was 
marked by undeviating integrity and purity, in- 
somuch that no scandalous whisper was ever 
circulated against him. Along with great sim- 
plicity of manners, he was characterized by 
perfect uprightness, and was invariabl}'' kind 
and gracious to all. It was impossible to detect 
from his conversation that he grounded the 
slightest title to consideration upon his literary 
fame. 

The words pronounced by a great contempo- 
rary on his dying bed might most fitly have been 
uttered by Washington Irving : 

" It is a comfort to me to think that I have tried to 



176 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principles, 
and that I have written nothing which on my death- 
bed I should wish blotted." 

No writer since Scott has filled a larger space 
in the hearts of the people of Great Britain and 
America than Washington Irving. Lord Ches- 
terfield said of the witty scintillations of the 
Dean of St. Patrick's, " He that hath any books 
in the three kingdoms hath those of Swift," and 
we think that every one, either in the United 
States or Great Britain, hath at least some one 
of the works of Geoffrey Crayon, — or if they 
have not, they should have. His friend, the 
author of '* Our Village," in her delightful 
** Recollections of a Literary Life," from which 
we make the following extract, shows that the 
circulation of Washington Irving's writings in 
the Mother Country is by no means confined to 
the literary or higher circles. She says : 

" To my poor cottage, rich only in printed paper, 
people come to borrow books for themselves or for 
their children. Sometimes they make their own se- 
lections; sometimes, much against my will, they leave 
the choice to me ; and in either case I know no books 
that are oftener lent than those that bear the pseudo- 
nym of Geoffrey Crayon. Few, very few, can show a 
long succession of volum'es so pure, so graceful, and 
so varied as Mr. Irving." 

On a beautiful spot overlooking the famous 
" Sleepy Hollow," and commanding a lovely view 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 177 

of the river and scenery he loved so well, by the 
side of his mother's grave, repose the remains of 
Washington Irving.* It will in a measure be the 
Stratford-upon-Avon and Dryburgh Abbey of 
America, and to that spot, the grave of the 
Morning Star of American literature, who more 
properly than the great Mantuan might have 
assumed the proud device. Primus ego in Patriam, 
many a pilgrim will wend his way in the years 
and ages to come, 

" Far on in summers that we shall not see. " 

Irving is the first of American authors who has 
been honoured with a centennial commemoration, 
and the publication of a sumptuous memorial 
edition of his Life and Letters. The celebration 



* Two instances of vandalism in connection with Irving, 
which happened to come under my notice, I cannot forbear 
mentioning. They are, I presume, the penalties of popu- 
larity. In the grand old Moorish palace of the Alhambra, 
on the heights of Granada, our guide in 1883, known as 
"The Gipsy King," who pretended to remember Irving, 
and may possibly have done so, showed us the vacant 
place where some villain had pried out the piece of marble 
mosaic work on which the gifted author had written his 
name on the occasion of his last visit. The other instance 
is the shameful mutilation of the simple marble slab which 
marks his grave in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. When I 
last saw it, the stone was much injured, and I was informed 
[that it was the second one placed there, the first having been 
entirely destroyed by relic-hunters ! 



178 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

occurred at Tarrytown on the one-hundredth 
anniversary of his birth, at which pleasant occa- 
sion Chief Justice Davis of New York presided, 
and an oration full of feeling and sympathy was 
delivered by one of Geoffrey Crayon's gifted 
disciples, Donald G. Mitchell. The reader will 
not, I believe, consider Longfellow's beautiful 
memorial lines misplaced on this last page de- 
voted to Washington Irving : 

" Here lies the gentle humourist, who died 
In the bright Indian summer of his fame! 
A simple stone, with but a date and name, 

Marks his secluded resting-place beside 

The river that he loved and glorified, 
Here in the autumn of his days he came, 
But the dry leaves of life were all aflame 
With tints that brightened and were multiplied. 

How sweet a life was his! how sweet a death! 
Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours, 
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer. 

Dying, to leave a memory like the breath 
Of summer, full of sunshine and of showers, 
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere." 



QntAA- vA^^^^Jk^ "^^j^^^Jii rL^^c>^iXzi 







RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1 79 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 

1787-1879. 

When the Abbe Sieyes was asked what he 
had done during the Reign of Terror, he made 
answer, "/'at vecu j" and it was no idle boast. 
Nor was it a small thing for Richard Henry 
Dana, who bore what Sidney calls " the sacred 
name of poet," to be able to say that, dating 
from the commencement of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, he had lived an intelligent spectator through 
seventy-eight of the most exciting and eventful 
years of the world's history. Born before Byron, 
Keats, and Shelley, he survived those sweet 
singers nearly fifty years. Born two years be- 
fore Washington's election to the Presidency, he 
lived through the administrations of all his suc- 
cessors down to Grant, till the end came on 
Sunday morning, February 2, 1879. As one 
little incident showing that he was in the per- 
fect possession of his mental faculties to the 
last, it may be mentioned that on the day pre- 
vious to his death he dictated a letter to the 
author of this volume. 

The uneventful career of a man of letters 



l8o BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

does not often furnish much material for biog- 
raphy, and to the author who attempts to write 
the life of Richard Henry Dana there will appear 
to be more than the usual lack of incident. His 
career was mostly that of a literary recluse. So 
much so, indeed, was this the case, that one of 
his contemporaries,* for half a century resident 
in the same city, recently said to the writer, " I 
do not think I met Mr. Dana five times in fifty 
years." Had he been endowed with a tempera- 
ment as active as it was meditative, he would 
have taken a more important position in the 
annals of American literature. As it is, but few 
of our writers have excelled him, either in prose 
or verse; and no one, I think, will question the 
statement that his was among the brightest, 
purest, and highest intelligences that the New 
World has yet produced. 

" It is not a hall filled with smoky statues," 
remarks Seneca, " that can make a man illustri- 
ous; because no one hath lived for our glory, 
nor is anything ours which existed before us." 
Yet, if good birth is of any avail to procure 
respect and veneration from mankind, then was 
Richard Henry Dana justly entitled to them. 
He was born at Cambridge, November 15, 1787, 
and began the world with the prestige of a great 
name; for he was a member of one of the 



* Hon, Charles Francis Adams. 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. l8l 

" Brahman" families of his native State of Massa- 
chusetts. 

The poet's ancestors, like those of Bryant, 
Halleck, and Longfellow, were among the Pilgrim 
Fathers. Some literary admixture was in his 
blood, for he was a descendant of Anne Brad- 
street, a daughter of Governor Dudley, whose 
poems were published in the year 1640. Richard 
Dana, the first of the American family, was 
among the 21,000 rhen who landed in New Eng- 
land between the years 1620 and 1640. He is 
known to have resided at Newtown, now Cam- 
bridge, near Boston, in the latter year, and to 
have married in 1648. He came to Massachu- 
setts from England, and according to the belief 
of some of his descendants, was a native of 
France, from whence he fled in consequence of 
the persecuting edicts of the Roman Catholics 
of that country. Griswold, however, states that 
the family is of English origin, and that William 
Dana, Sheriff of Middlesex, in the palmy days 
of Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser, was their 
ancestor. Among Richard Dana's first acts in 
the New World, of which there is any record, 
was his deeding fifty-eight acres of land, April 
20, 1657, to Edward Jackson. The property is 
situated on the road from Boston to Newtown 
Four Corners, and is now known as the Hun- 
newell Farm. His fourth son, David, born in 
1663, married Naomi Crowell of Charlestown, 



1 82 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

and their third son, Richard, who was graduated 
at Harvard College in 1718, married Lydia 
Trowbridge. Their third son, Francis, born in 
1743, was graduated at Harvard in the class of 
1762, and at the age of thirty married Elizabeth 
Ellery, eldest daughter of William Ellery of 
Newport, one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. The fruit of this marriage, 
which occurred August 5, 1773, was three daugh- 
ters, the eldest of whom became the wife of 
Washington Allston, the painter, and four sons. 
The youngest, Richard Henry, and the last sur- 
vivor of the seven children, was born in the fine 
old mansion situated on Dana Hill, between 
Harvard College and Boston. 

John Adams, writing to Washington in April, 
1776, says of the poet's father: "The bearer of 
this letter, Mr. Francis Dana, is a gentleman 
of family, fortune, and education, returned in 
the last packet from London, where he has 
been about a year. He has ever maintained an 
excellent character in his country, and a warm 
friendship for the American cause. He returns 
to share with his friends in their dangers and 
their triumphs. I have done myself the honour 
to give him this letter, for the sake of introduc- 
ing him to your acquaintance, as he has fre- 
quently expressed to me a desire to embrace the 
first opportunity of paying his respects to a 
character so highly esteemed and so justly ad- 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. . 1 83 

mired throughout all Europe as well as Amer- 
ica. Mr. Dana will satisfy you that we have no 
reason to expect peace with Great Britain." 
Francis Dana was a member of the Continental 
Congress, appointed as first American Minister 
to Russia,* and later Chief Justice of Massachu- 
setts. 

Dana was a delicate and sensitive child, and 
an apt scholar. When about ten years of age he 
was sent to Newport to prepare for college, and 
there he resided for several years with his ma- 
ternal grandfather, whose house is still standing 
and in a good state of preservation. He was a 
high-strung lad, and is said to have spent most 
of his leisure-hours, when not engaged in study, 
in rambling along the picturesque cliffs; and in 
this circumstance critics have found the original 
inspiration of his chief poem, "The Buccaneer,'' 
the republication of which in a popular magazine 
but a short period before his death, accompanied 



* In the Russian Archives of the Foreign Department at 
Moscow the writer had the privilege of examining, in 1883, 
the interesting correspondence between Mr. Dana and the 
Vice-Chancellor, Count Ostermann, during the years 1782- 
83, relating to the appointment of the former as United 
States Minister at the Court of the Empress, she having 
declined to receive Mr. Dana until the conclusion of the 
definitive treaties of peace with Great Britain. The cor- 
respondence has, since the date of my visit, been copied for 
the State Department at Washington. 



184 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

by spirited illustrations, afforded the venerable 
author undisguised pleasure. It was at Newport, 
as the poet said to the present writer, that he first 
met Washington AUston, his future brother-in- 
law, and his cousin William Ellery Channing, 
both several years his seniors. They were friends 
through life ; and fifty years from the time they 
played together on the sandy beaches and rock- 
bound coast of Rhode Island, the accomplished 
author, the highly-gifted artist and poet, and 
the eloquent divine met frequently in their 
Massachusetts homes in Boston and Cambridge. 
Dana followed his two friends and kinsmen to 
their graves, and during the quarter of a century 
that he survived them he continued to fondly 
and faithfully cherish their memory. We should 
be glad to give some incidents of Dana's boy- 
hood days. But the flight of time obliterates 
such minutiae, and his contemporaries have all 
long since passed away ; hence the meagreness 
of these mere outlines of his early life. 

In 1804 Dana entered Harvard College. His 
class was one that displaj^ed a rebellious spirit, 
and many of them were in 1807 expelled, Dana 
and his cousin Walter Channing among the num- 
ber, for participation in what was known as the 
Rotten Cabbage Rebellion, which occurred about 
the close of the third year of his course. Fifty- 
eight years afterwards the bachelor's degree was 
conferred upon him, and in 1867 was also given 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 185 

to Dr. Walter Channing. The "flood of years" 
has swept away all the members of the class of 
1808, which included Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney of South Carolina. The last survivor was 
was Dr. Ebenezer Alden of Randolph, Mass., 
who in a letter to the author, written at the age 
of ninety-two, said that he remembered Dana 
as a slight and sensitive youth when he entered 
Harvard — that he was an excellent scholar, 
standing well in his classes; and warmly com- 
mended him as a young gentleman of unblem- 
ished character. The author's father-in-law, 
Rev. Dr. J. Cogswell, and his cousin, Joseph G. 
Cogswell, of the Astor Library, members of the 
class of 1806, had similar recollections relative 
to Mr. Dana as a college student. 

After leaving Harvard Dana spent two years 
in study at Newport. He then returned to 
Cambridge and entered upon the study of the 
law — first in his father's office, and later in that 
of his cousin, Francis Dana Channing of Bos- 
ton, where he was admitted to the bar early in 
the year 181 1. Writing in 1846 to his friend 
William Alfred Jones, Mr. Dana remarks: 

"There might be added,* if worth while, that I have 
two sons in Boston in the practice of the law, the elder, 
the author of 'Two Years Before the Mast,' who 



* To what Dr. Griswold had published in "The Prose 
Writers of America." — The Author. 



1 86 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

bears my name, and the younger, the name of his 
great-uncle, Edmund Trowbridge. He and my mater- 
nal grandfather, William Ellery, married daughters of 
Jonathan Remington, who, as well as Judge Trow- 
bridge, was in his day one of the King's judges in our 
colony, and an able lawyer. Judge Remington mar- 
ried a daughter of Governor Bradstreet, who married 
Anne, the poetess, and daughter of Governor Dudley. 
I have a copy of her poems published in Boston, 1678, 
' Of the Four Elements — Of the Four Humours in Man's 
Constitution — Of the Four Seasons of the Year — Of 
the Four Monarchies of the World.' However little of 
inspiration my good ancestor may have had, you see 
that she was not lacking in aspirations. The legal 
profession has run in our family perhaps quite as long 
as in any family in the country, and unbroken through 
my father and paternal grandfather. My maternal 
grandfather Ellery practised law, and was on the bench 
in Rhode Island for a short time, and I practised long 
enough to keep the chain whole. By the way, the 
study of the law interested me deeply. I shall never 
forget how absorbed I was in the reading of my 
father's old folio edition of Coke on Littleton. I 
have sometimes suspected that the old Norman 
French, the black-letter, and more especially the old 
tenures, acting upon my imagination and bringing be- 
fore me the early social condition of men, helped a 
good deal to make this particular work so interesting 
to me. Does not an imaginative mind draw more 
from facts which have in themselves or their relation 
any qualities convertible into poetry, when it reaches 
through a dry, unimaginative medium, than when they 
are presented to it by some imaginative power and in 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1 87 

an imaginative form ? In the former case the imagi- 
native mind is active and creative ; in the latter, more 
of a mere passive recipient. Sharon Turner's mind, 
for instance, is dry enongh, yet I have never looked 
into his history without having my imagination excit- 
ed by it. ... I studied law in Boston with my 
cousin, the eldest brother of the celebrated Dr. Chan- 
ning, my mother and his being sisters, The now 
Professor Channing was my fellow-student. I was 
admitted to the bar here, and was in Robert Goodloe 
Harper's office afterwards for only a few months, to 
get somewhat acquainted with the Maryland modes of 
practice. . . . Going into town one day while 
assisting E. T. Channing (now Professor) in the 
North American Review (18 17), he read to me a couple 
of pieces of poetry which had just been sent to the 
Review — the ' Thanatopsis ' and 'The Inscription for 

the Entrance to a Wood.' While C was reading 

one of them I broke out, saying, ' That was never 
written on this side of the water ' — and naturally 
enough, considering what American poetry had been 
up to that moment. I remember saying also, ' The 
father is much the cleverer man of the two.' Bryant's 
father was afterwards in our Senate, and I went there 
to take a look at him. He had anything but a ' plain 
business-like aspect.' On the contrary he had a 
finely marked and highly intellectual-looking head — 
you would have noticed him among a hundred men. 
But with all my examination I could not discover 
' Thanatopsis ' in it — the poetic phase was wanting to 
me. I remember going away with a feeling of morti 
fication that I could not discover the poetic in the face 
of the writer of 'Thanatopsis.' There was no 'mis- 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



take of names,' you see, as Griswold stales. When for 
the first time I afterwards saw Bryant at Cambridge 
and spoke to him about his father's ' Thanatopsis,' he 
explained the matter, and gave me a very characteristic 
reason for not sending both pieces in his own name : 
he felt as if it would be overdoing. We had a hearty 
laugh together when I told him of the physiognomical 
perplexity his fanciful deception had thrown me in. 
. . . You may think it strange that I have pub- 
lished so little. Had I been tolerably successful in a 
pecuniary way, I should have been a voluminous 
writer by this time. But having a family to support, 
and finding that I was writing myself into debt, so 
discouraged me that I had no heart for the work. 
. . . Do you wonder that repeated disappointments, 
after having at first distressed me, have at last left 
me in a state of indifference.'*" 

Dana, as we have seen, studied law for a few 
months with General Harper of Baltimore ; 
then returning to the North, he opened an office 
in Boston, and at the age of twenty-four he was 
elected by the Federalists to the State Legisla- 
ture. May II, 1813, he was married by Bishop 
Griswold to Ruth Charlotte, daughter of John 
and Susanna Smith of Taunton, Mass. They had 
four children, only one of whom survives. Mrs, 
Dana died February 10, 1822, aged thirty-four 
years. 

In 1814 Dana delivered a public address, which 
was printed with the following title-page : 
" An Oration delivered before the Washington 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1 89 

Benevolent Society, at Cambridge, Mass., July 
4, 1814. " During the ensuing year Mr. Dana de- 
cided to abandon the profession of the law and to 
follow the bent of his mind, which ran in another 
channel. He had been for several years a mem- 
ber of the Anthology Club, out of which grew 
the North American Review, in the editorship of 
which he was soon afterward associated with 
Edward T. Channing. To its pages he contribut- 
ed several striking criticisms and essays. They 
attracted great attention at the time, and at once 
established his reputation as an able, indepen- 
dent, and vigorous writer. Perhaps his most 
important contributions to its pages were his 
criticisms of the new school of English poetry, 
of which Coleridge and Wordsworth were the 
leaders, and were then struggling to attract 
public attention and favour. When Channing 
was elected a Harvard professor and resigned 
his connection with the Review, Dana also left 
it. Without question, his enforced retirement 
was a national misfortune ; for, as Bryant said, 
" if it had remained in Dana's hands he would 
have imparted a character of originality and 
decision to its critical articles which no literary 
man of the country was at that time qualified to 
give it." 

In the year 182 1 Dana began the publication 
in New York of "The Idle Man," a work hand- 
someh'' issued in well-printed octavo numbers; 



I go BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



somewhat in the style of Irving's "Sketch Book," 
but displaying much more vigour of thought and 
strength of style. Allston and Bryant contrib- 
uted poems to its pages, and Verplanck aided 
him in the business arrangements with Charles 
Wiley, who published seven numbers for the 
author, when, the work proving unprofitable, it 
was discontinued. "'The Idle Man,'" wrote 
Bryant, "notwithstanding the cold reception it 
met with from the public, we look upon as hold- 
ing a place among the first productions of Amer- 
ican literature." It was at Wiley's, on the corner 
of Wall and New streets, in a small back room, 
christened by Cooper "The Den," and so desig- 
nated over the door, that Dana first met the nov- 
elist; the poets Percival and Halleck, the second 
edition of whose " Fanny" Wiley had just issued; 
Henry Brevoort, Colonel Stone, Dunlap, Morse, 
and other notabilities of that day. Here Cooper 
was in the habit of holding forth to an admiring 
audience, very much as Christopher North did 
about the same time in "Blackwood's" back 
parlour in George Street, Edinburgh. 

" I will not affect an indifference which I do 
not feel," wrote Dana in an introduction to a 
new edition of "The Idle Man," issued in 1833. 

" I have an earnest desire for the success of this vol- 
ume, and to that end, for a generally good opinion of 
it, although in estimating what is my own, as well as 
what belongs to others, the opinion of the many is of 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. IQI 



less weight with me than the few. To be liked by those 
whose hearts and minds I esteem would bean unspeak- 
able comfort to me, and would open sympathies with 
them in my nature which lie deep in the immortal part 
of me, and which therefore, though beginning in time, 
will doubtless live on in eternity. To such hearts and 
minds I now humbly but especially commend myself." 

On another occasion he says, 

" The most self-dependent are stirred to livelier ac- 
tion by the hope of fame ; and there are none who can 
go on with vigour without the sympathy of some 
few minds which they respect." 

Bryant once related to me a curious meeting 
which took place in this city between Dana, and 
the eccentric Dr. John W. Francis, soon after the 
appearance of "The Idle Man." The incident 
has since been so well told and at greater 
length by Tuckerman, that I will borrow his de- 
scription, which I believe he received from the 
humorous doctor himself: 

" Finish of style and psychological insight were too 
rare in our nascent literature when Richard H. Dana 
wrote and published those remarkable papers, not to 
excite the earnest admiration of such a literary enthu- 
siast as Dr. Francis. And while enjoying the pathos 
and free discrimination as well as pure diction they ex- 
hibited, he fully appreciated the heroism of the author, 
who ventured bravely on a literary experiment involv- 
ing pecuniary risk, so much in advance of and above the 
taste and temper of the time and country. But there 



192 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

was another reason for his partiality for Dana : he had 
heard Edmund Kean, of whose genius he had made a 
study, and whose fastidiousness as regards criticism 
was remarkable, declare emphatically, after reading 
Dana's analysis of his acting, ' This writer understands 
me.' The modest and sensitive author of 'The Buc- 
caneer,' had thus been, from the commencement of his 
career, an object of peculiar interest and admiration to 
the doctor. One morning, as the latter went forth to 
his professional duties, a neighbour detained him in 
friendly chat, and incidentally mentioned that a cleri- 
cal-looking gentleman who was tranquilly walking 
down Broadway was Mr. Dana of Boston. ' What ! ' 
exclaimed the doctor, ' do you mean to say that is '' The 
Idle Man" ? ' and he rushed up to the astonished author 
with the query, ' Are you the immortal Dana.?' And, 
reading in the confusion and surprise of the stranger 
an affirmative reply, he seized him in his arms, and, 
bearing him triumphantly across the street, succeeded 
in placing him, a living trophy of genius, upon his hos- 
pitable threshold ; the frightened subject of his demon- 
stration meantime appealing to the neighbour who had 
betrayed his identity by vociferating ' Release me from 
this maniac!' Those familiar with the robust figure 
and broad, rosy face of the doctor, and the slender form 
and spiritual features of the poet, can easily imagine 
the extraordinary tableau. Notwithstanding this bold 
attempt at abduction, a lifelong friendship was the re- 
sult of an acquaintance so oddly begun." 

In 1825 Bryant removed to New York, and be- 
came the editor of the New York Review and Athe- 
ncBum Magazine. In the first number appeared 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. I93 

Dana's earliest poem, " The Dying Raven," 
written at the age of thirty-eight, and signed 
with an anonymous '*Y." The same number 
contained, on the preceding page, accompanied 
by the simple signature "H.," the poem of 
"Marco Bozzaris," of which the editor said: "It 
would be an act of gross injustice to the author 
of the above magnificent lyric were we to with- 
hold the expression of our admiration of its 
extraordinary beauty. We are sure, too, that in 
this instance, at least, we have done what is rare 
in the annals of criticism — we have given an 
opinion from which no one of our readers will 
feel any inclination to dissent." 

There was published at Cambridge, in the 
autumn of 182 1, a small volume of forty-four 
dingy pages, containing eight pieces entitled 
" Poems by William CuUen Bryant." Six years 
later there appeared in New York Halleck's 
little anonymous brochure of a somewhat similar 
appearance, containing seventeen poems and 
sixty-four pages, bearing on its title-page, "Aln- 
wick Castle and Other Poems." During the 
same year tliere was issued by Bowles & Dear- 
born, of 72 Washington Street, Boston, an i8mo 
book of 113 pages, dedicated to Gulian C. Ver- 
planck, entitled "Poems by Richard H. Dana," 
containing the following table of contents: "The 
Buccaneer," "The Changes of Home," "The 
Husband and Wife's Grave," " The Dying Ra- 



194 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ven," "Fragment of an Epistle," "The Little 
Beach Bird," " A Clump of Daisies," " The Pleas- 
ure Boat," and " Daybreak." These three lite- 
rary curiosities, now lying before me, are the first 
editions of the earliest American poets of the 
present century, and each contains at least one 
poem destined to live. Some one predicted that 
Bryant's " Thanatopsis" and Halleck's " Marco 
Bozzaris" were American poems that would be 
read by all future ages. May we not add to these 
Dana's "Buccaneer," which still holds a secure 
place in the popular anthologies? 

Christopher North's criticism on this poem 
greatly gratified its author, and if for no other 
reason, is worth recalling. He pronounces the 
" Buccaneer" by far the most powerful and origi- 
nal of American poetical compositions, adding : 
" The power is Mr. Dana's own ; but the style — 
though he has made it his own too — is coloured 
by that of Crabbe, of Wordsworth, and of Cole- 
ridge. He is no servile follower of those great 
masters, but his genius has been inspired by 
theirs, and he almost places himself on a level 
with them by this extraordinary story — we mean 
on tlie level on which they stand in such poems 
as the 'Old Grimes' of Crabbe, the 'Peter 
Bell' of Wordsworth, and the 'Ancient Mari- 
ner' of Coleridge. The 'Buccaneer' is not 
equal to any one of them, but it belongs to the 
same class, and shows much of the same power 



klCHARi) HENRY DANA. IQ^ 

in the delineations of the mysterious workings 
of the passions and the imagination." 

Bayard Taylor, in alluding to our early litera- 
ture, said: " Dana, Halleck, and Bryant rose to- 
gether on steadier wings, and gave voices to the 
solitude: Dana with a broad, grave undertone, 
like that of the sea ; Br)^ant with a sound as of 
the wind in summer woods, and the fall of waters 
in mountain dells; and Halleck with strains 
blown from a silver trumpet, breathing manly 
fire and courage. Many voices have followed 
them, but we shall not forget the forerunners 
who rose in advance of their welcome, and cre- 
ated their own audience by their songs." 

Dana's family were Unitarians, but in 1826 he 
and his friend Allston joined the Congregational 
Church of Cambridge, then presided over by the 
father of the poet Holmes. In the controversy 
which continued for about ten years from that 
time, between the Unitarians and the Congrega- 
tionalists, Dana entered with great energy, some 
of his strongest articles appearing in The Spirit 
of the Pilgrims, edited by President Enoch Pond 
(1791-1882), who survived his friend the poet 
several years. This bitter controversy, in which 
Dana was opposed to his gifted cousin. Dr. 
Channing, the acknowledged leader of the libe- 
ral party (of whom Coleridge said, "He has the 
love of wisdom, and the wisdom of love"), in 
no way affected their feelings of personal affec- 



196 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

tion, nor did it for a moment imperil the sixty 
years' friendship of Dana and Bryant. Much of 
their correspondence was upon this vexed ques- 
tion, and also in regard to their political opinions, 
upon which they differed as widely as in their 
theological views. Some years later Mr. Dana 
became a member of the Episcopal Church. 

" On his removal to Boston," wrote his friend Dr. 
Adams, " Mr. Dana attached himself to the Episcopal 
Church, with which communion he remained to the 
close of his life. To those who knew him well the ex- 
planation of this change is very easy. Not to speak of 
the reaction which ensued, after certain ' measures ' 
adopted in some of the ' Orthodox ' churches, which 
did not commend themselves to the judgement and 
taste of all, it was the aesthetic element in the worship 
of the Episcopal Church which impressed and delighted 
his peculiar constitution. It was the same influence 
which has made Keble's 'Christian Year' more potent 
over many minds than all the Tracts which were pub- 
lished at Oxford. He was fond of music, of art in all 
its forms, of everything which fascinated his imagina- 
tion. That which to a coarser nature was a merely 
sensuous pleasure and a meritorious rite, to his deli- 
cate, refined, and spiritual sensibilities was not merely 
a charm, but a means of aiding the faith which brought 
him nearer to God and the world unseen. In that 
serene and steadfast faith he continued to the end." 

In 1829, Mr. Dana delivered a poem before the 
Andover Theological Seminary. Dr. Adams, 
who was present, writes: "No one who had the 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1 9/ 

good fortune to hear that poem, as delivered 
by its author, will forget the enthusiasm of the 
occasion. The poet seemed borne away by his 
theme, his eye sparkled, and his whole face was 
illumined with rapturous smiles, as 

' Joys played through him like a sparkling sea.* " 

This poem, published the same year, was in- 
cluded in the second edition of his works, which 
appeared in 1833, and was entitled "Thoughts 
on the Soul." The volume contained all the 
poems in the first, with additions, and also his 
prose papers reprinted from " The Idle Man." 
A portion of this volume was published in Lon- 
don in 1844, with the title of "The Buccaneer 
and Other Poems," and again in the same city 
in 1857, in a volume entitled " Poetical Works of 
Edgar A. Poe and R. H. Dana." 

Could there be by any possibility a more curi- 
ous combination than a volume containing be- 
tween the same covers the poems of Poe and 
Dana? There lies before me while I write a 
copy of this literary curiosity, together with the 
rare original edition of " The Idle Man." Allud- 
ing to this oddity of the Dana-Poe brochure, the 
former said he had never seen the book; that he, 
of course, was not consulted in regard to it ; and 
that while thinking well of some of Poe's pro- 
ductions, he would not have selected him as a 



198 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

literary partner or associate, as the London pub- 
lisher had done for him. 

During the winter of 1839-40 Mr. Dana gave 
a course of eight lectures on Shakespeare, in 
Boston, New York, and Piiiladelphia, which were 
subsequently repeated in those cities and else- 
where as late as the summer of 1850, when he 
delivered them at Andover and Amherst. In 
the same year, a two-volume edition of his works 
was issued in this city by Baker & Scribner, con- 
taining everything that Mr. Dana deemed worthy 
of preservation. It passed through two editions, 
and has now been long entirely out of print. It 
is to be hoped that the work will speedily be re- 
published, along with his most admirable and 
scholarly Shakespeare lectures, which were years 
ago prepared for the press, as I happen to know. 

The late Prof. C. S. Henry, in a letter to the 
author, dated February 20, 1879, says: 

"In 1831-32 I lived in Mr. Dana's family at Cam- 
bridge, while pursuing some special studies at the Uni- 
versity. Between him and myself, though he was my 
senior by nearly twice ten years, a friendship grew up 
that continued unbroken to the last. After I left Cam- 
bridge a correspondence began which continued 
through his life. Some of his letters have been lost; 
but I have now before me 150 of them, which I have 
been looking over for the last week : the first of them 
dated in 1832, the last in 1877, written in the tremu- 
lous hand of one entering his ninety-first year. These 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1 99 

letters recall to my remembrance much of the story of 
my own life for half a century, and of his life too. In 
1839-40, while delivering his lectures on Shakespeare 
in New York, he was my guest. He first went to Mr. 
Bryant's, but stayed there only a fortnight ; then he 
came to me and passed the whole winter in my family. 
From that time my house was always his home. I sup- 
pose there are but few instances of such a warm and 
hearty friendship — running through half a century — as 
his letters to me disclose. But he is gone, and of all 
those who in long past days lived together in mutual 
friendly relations there are only two that survive — 
George Ripley and myself." * 

In June, 1832, Dana writes: 

" Your friend Emerson has advised his church to 
give up the observance of the Sacrament service. His 
people are much excited about it. Some say he will 
leave. One of Dr. Channing's Society was wrought up 
to such a state of holy indignation as to rip and swear 
about it most vehemently to a friend of mine. Some 
of Emerson's brethren say he is probably a little in- 
sane. I don't believe he is any more insane than they, 
only a little more honest : but to be honest beyond the 
world's rule is to be mad." 

Two years later he says: 

" If I had time and pe7i-patience, I could show how 
Allston, without extravagant habits, but through sheer 
ignorance oi getting-along ability, and of the affairs of 



* Mr. Ripley, the accomplished critic, died in the year 
l88o, and Dr. Henry passed away in 1884. 



2O0 BRYANT AND HIS FRIKNDS. 

life, with what he has received for his pictures, has for 
a long time been in that state of anxiety for means 
which has stopped his work upon the much-talked-of 
picture. I wish for his own peace of mind, if for no 
other reason, he could be so relieved as to unroll that 
canvas, and with a free spirit go on till it should be fin- 
ished. You see that I have been reviewed over and 
over again, and in so kind a spirit, to say the least of it. 
Tilton's review in \.h.& Examiner is by far the ablest, but 
some of his commendations made my sallow face glow. 
I felt that it was here and there beyond my deserts. A 
review of Bryant by him will appear in the next Ameri- 
can Quarterly Observer. . . . Longfellow came in and 
broke off my writing for a while He is a pleasing 
gentleman. The Harpers are to publish in two vol- 
umes his work, which has been coming out in num- 
bers." 

In January, 1835, Dana writes: 

" Upon opening a letter this morning, from the edi- 
tor of the Quarterly Observer I saw very neatly spread 
out in it (let me write it at large) two-and-thirty dollars 
for my article. Now this same article served me for a 
Fourth-of-July address at Salem, for which, as is their 
custom, they sent me ten dollars. Now if I am right, 
$10 added to $32 make $42 — almost half as much as I 
received for my volume of ' Poems and Prose Writ- 
ings.' By the bye, do you know that the $100 which 
I received for this latter work just squared off what I 
lost upon the original ' Idle Man '? So you see I am 
now $42 in hand. Is this anything like your plan of 
literary money-making f If you have a better (as you 
hint at my going snacks with you in one), 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 20I 

I s'pose 

You knows 

I'd like to close 

With your propose." 

" Allston has finished a picture for Mr. Nathan Ap- 
pleton," Dana writes, in January, 1836, " by all odds the 
finest he has painted for many years. It is of a female 
who has been listening to music. In Park Benjamin's 
formerly New England now American Magazme for 
January you will find Mr. Allston's lines upon it — 
well worth the trouble of hunting up. All but the last 
stanza he wrote on hearing my daughter sing his favour- 
ite Italian air. He added the last stanza to adapt the 
poem to his picture. . . . Last autumn I took a class 
of young females for reading English poetry. Besides 
this, I have a class of older and partly of married ladies. 
They take from twelve o'clock to half-past one, three 
days in the week. I detest reading poetry for the pur- 
pose of talking about it ; but still, as it gives me a bite 
at that root called the root of all evil, I endure it, . . . 
It is a long time since I have written any poetry. Nor 
shall I probably write any more to the end of my days, 
unless the bonds upon my spirits are taken off. ... I 
received a letter the other day all the way from Ken- 
tucky simply begging for my autograph. It cost the 
writer 25 cents postage, and if he gets the autograph 
that will be 25 cents more. Fifty cents for an R. H. D. 
Is not that having honour thrust upon you } Why, an 
R. H. D. is nigh worth as much at this rate as a D.D. 
or LL.D." Three years later the poet writes: "Oh 
that you could see the glorious show that Allston's 
paintings make ! Now that five-and-forty of them are 
gathered here together, you can hardly imagine the 



202 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Power with which they break upon everyone when 
first standing in their midst, Prophet, sorceress, the 
awaking dead, mountains, sea, woods, quiet nooks, 
streamlets, sunsets, and last of all — for here we linger 
last — woman, her sotd-beauty in her face — more than 
woman, and yet all woman. Cannot our people be 
roused up to come from East and West and North 
and South to see this great creation, the like of which 
may not be seen here again for centuries ? Surely 
Allston stands in this age alone." 

Of Mr. Dana's Shakespeare lectures Verplanck 
wrote at the time of their delivery: 

" Mr. Dana's last two lectures, on the Supernatural 
in Shakespeare, and on " Macbeth," were perhaps the 
very ablest ever delivered in this city, by any lecturer. 
In the union of metaphysical refinement and rich 
poetic beauty of expression, in the uniform soundness 
and purity of his teaching, in his discriminating and 
exquisitely just criticism, we know of no American 
writer who can be said to approach him. He is inva- 
riably high-toned — his devotion of sentiment and of 
principle are cotistant qualities. Not merely as poetical 
productions, full of acute remarks and picturesque an- 
alysis, not only for an exhibition of a delicate feeling 
for beauty and powerful expression of it, but as lessons 
of wisdom and sage counsel, these Lectures deserve to 
be heard with respectful attention. 

" Himself a poet, and friend of poets and artists of the 
first class, Mr. Dana can speak with authority and to 
the point on all questions of the character of those 
that came up before him. The delicate and fragile 
blossoms of fancy, the vivid and creative flashes of 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 203 

imagination, the whole world of sentiment and emo- 
tion, are included in his philosophy. The charms of 
feminine loveliness, the force of manly character, are 
appreciated and advocated by him. The eternal prin- 
ciples of Truth, Justice, Conscience, and Virtue ' shine 
aloft like stars,' in his views of Man and Society, 
though at the same time, with the tender feeling of 
the lover, he neglects not the miniature miracles of 
creation, in herb, tree, grass, or flower. 

" The concluding lecture on Violent Deaths on the 
English Stage, and on 'Hamlet,' we advise our readers 
by no means to lose, for they will regret it hereafter, if 
they absent themselves. Such lectures are not often 
heard anywhere, and should be cherished, as among 
the finest fruits of American scholarship, genius, and 
critical ability." 

Writing to Mr. W. A. Jones in March, 1852, 
Mr. Dana remarks: 

" My health has not been so good for many years as 
it is now, and I find it quite impossible to feel old. 
Reading something about the Bishops of the Church 
in the early ages a few days since, it said of one of 
them, ' This old man of sixty-one being sent into 
Africa — ' 'Old ' indeed ! thought I. Strange enough ! 
Why, here am I nearly sixty-five, and call me old ? 
Make me a bishop, and I will go to Africa too. I am 
not old. I won't be old! Don't call me old ! Yet they 
will, I sometimes hear them say ' The old gentleman.' 
It is hard for me to realize the truth of it. My inward 
self gives it the lie to me. I am obliged.-t^ set my 
outer self off and look at it as in a mental mirror, and 
then it hardly seems to be uiyself. I am sorely inclined 



204 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

to pity the object I see there, as I would another, and 
not myself. Do you think Falstaff's numbering himself 
as of the Youth was all of vanity ? Not at all. It was 
more than half from jollity of heart. Merriment can- 
not be old, and kindness and a cheerful nature live a 
perpetual youth. Not that I am of a merry or scarcely 
a cheerful one ; but I hope not of an unkind one, and 
that therefore it is, I have some inward youth in leaf 
yet. I am not thoughtless of the fact, however, that, at 
the utmost, in a very few years more I must be gone. 
Not a day passes over my head without reminding me 
more than once of this. I see that the grave-digger is 
beginning to cut the sod, and here and there one is 
turned up, and I perceive gravel and loam. I stand 
talking on awhile, and presently I seem to hear the 
words, ' Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.' But there are 
other words than these, my dear sir : 'I know that my 
Redeemer liveth.' I know not how I have been led 
along out of trifling into such seriousness. But it is 
better from gay to grave than from grave to gay ; still, 
both are well in their season." 

In another letter he writes : 

" You tell me wonders of Halleck. Why, I thought 
he was on his last legs ! I should indeed like to see him, 
and especially in his Connecticut village. One would 
be at home with him there, if I understand him. I have 
met with very few professedly literary men so much to 
my liking, so natural and easy and self- forgetful." 

From several others of Mr. Dana's letters to 
the author I make a few brief extracts. Writing 
in 1868, he says: 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 205 

" I greatly regret my acquaintance with Mr. Halleck 
having been too slight for me to tell you anything new 
about iiim. I well remember dining with him, many 
years ago, at our friend Bryant's, and how frank and 
genial he was. I took to him at once, but never saw 
him after." 

In forwarding, for a member of my family, a 
manuscript copy of "The Little Beach Bird," in 
1870, the poet writes: 

" I am pleased that you have so chosen. My head 
has been for some time past in so delicate a state that 
I have been obliged to forbear reading or writing as 
much as possible. This mu.st account for the slovenly 
appearance of the copy." 

In another letter, in answer to inquiries, Mr, 
Dana writes: 

"Mr. Griswold's facts are stated correctly in his 
' Prose Writers of America,' with the exception that 
the criticism on Moore's Poems was by Prof. Chan- 
ning, and not, as Griswold has it, by me. My first con- 
tribution to the North A/nerzcatt Review was an essay 
entitled ' Old Times,' which appeared in 1817, and now 
begins the second volume of my collected works. I 
was much pleased at receiving your Memorial of Chief- 
Justice Kirkpatrick. It makes one feel strong to read 
the life of such a man. He must have been a rare 
character— an ancestor of whom Mrs. Wilson may 
justly feel proud." 

Writing under date of November 27, 1872, Mr. 
Dana remarks: 



2o6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

" It greatly pleased me to receive a few lines from 
you, just returned from that glorious old city, London, 
which, it is sad to think, I shall never see. . . . You 
must have 'talked me up' to the two ladies who ask 
for my autograph, so almost wholly unknown am I 
across the water. You speak of Sir Henry Holland as 
my senior. I learn that he was born in October, 1788, 
which makes him my junior by eleven months. Were 
it the reverse, however, I should hardly have had the 
indomitable energy to visit Norway and Sweden, or 
even the Big Trees of the Yosemite Valley. I remem- 
ber my son speaking of breakfasting with Sir Henry, 
some years ago ; but he had not the pleasure of meet- 
ing his family, as they were out of town. What a 
treat his conversation must be! Our friend Bryant 
takes along with him all the vigour of youth into his 
old age. He stands in little need of the profits on his 
poems, which you mention ; but from another cause it 
must be gratifying to him, and what is still better — his 
fellow-creatures must be refined through his success. 
. . . ' Green River ' was first published in TAe Idle 
Mail, second number ; ' A Walk at Sunset ' in the third 
number, there headed ' Poetry,' simply. The Idle Man 
appeared in 1821-22." 

In another letter, written soon after the last, 
Dana said: 

" What you tell me about our friend Bryant in Great 
Britain greatly surprises me. That he should be so 
little known in Ireland and Scotland is certainly 
strange ; but that you should be asked such a question 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 20/ 

as was put to you at Oxford almost surpasses belief.* 
No less singular is the ignorance of Halleck and his 
admirable poetical writings, to which you allude." 

A few months later the poet writes : 

" I have not received any letter from you since those 
relating to the autographs for the English ladies.t In 
order that you might feel assured that no letter had 



* In writing to Mr. Dana the previous week, I had men- 
tioned the circumstance of having lunched with one of the 
Fellows of Magdalen College, occupying a seat two hundred 
years old, and drinking my ale out of a silver tankard of the 
same age. Afterwards visiting the Bodleian Library, and 
inquiring for " Bryant's Translation of Homer," of which I 
had been speaking to my English friend, we were gravely 
asked, "What Bryant?" and upon the question being 
answered, were solemnly informed that they had never 
heard of him! To this I may add another illustration 
of ignorance: A leading London literary journal, in the 
course of an editorial, remarks: "FitzGreene Halleck, 
whoever he may have been, and his poem of Alnwick 
Castle, is also represented," etc. — Vide Saturday Review, 
March 29, 1884; article "American Collectors." Another 
English authority on literary subjects, — The Athenaum, 
— in announcing the venerable poet's decease, has the 
following: "The death is announced of Mr. R. H. Dana, 
the author of 'The Buccaneer,' and the father of the nov- 
elist" ! His friends would be happy to hear the titles of 
some of his novels. 

f The autograph poems referred to were for the daughters 
of Sir Henry Holland, and were written by Richard Henry 
Dana, FitzGreene Halleck, William CuUen Bryant, Henry 
W. Longfellow, John G. Whittier, and Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. 



208 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

through some mistake got mixed up with others, un- 
read, I have made a careful search. I cannot account 
for the failure, unless some of President Grant's par- 
doned post- office thieves may have broken open the 
packet, looking for something of money value." 

In 1873 Mr. Dana says : 

" I am late in thanking you for the very pleasant 
sketch of Sir Henry Holland. Is it a sin to envy you 
a little your acquaintance with him } If so, I fear I 
stand in need of forgiveness. Are we soon to have a 
collection from his MSS.? It will furnish much to 
interest the curious, of which I confess myself to be 
one." 

Mr. Dana, having received, on its publication 
in 1876, a copy of the Bryant brochure on Christ- 
mas Day, he wrote: 

" I heartily thank you for the ' Presentation ' to my 
friend of many years. But for you I might never have 
seen it. It was pleasant to read your account of his 
continued health. For myself, I had returned from 
the sea-shore but a few days, in fine health, when I 
was taken ill, and have been out of doors but three 
times up to the present. I thank you also for the hope 
you express that I may be present at the unveiling of 
the statue to Halleck. To be there would be very 
gratifying, for, besides the poet, I liked the manly 
man. But I shall never again leave town, except for 
my seaside place, till I am taken to my long home." 

Writing a year later, the poet says: 

" The ' Memorial ' came safely. It was pleasant to 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 209 

meet in any form my old and not forgotten friend Mr. 
Duyckinck. He was one of the first — and when I was 
a stranger to him — to notice me favourably, and at a 
time when I had little enough of such notice nearer 
home. To this was added the satisfaction of its being 
done by one who wrote so well. Many were the agree- 
able hours I afterwards spent with him. ... I never 
did anything here or there (Boston or New York) by 
publishing but lose money." 

I shall always regret that I cannot recall Mr. 
Dana's delightful talk about his brother-in-law, 
Washington Allston, while showing me some of 
his paintings which adorned the poet's Boston 
residence, on the occasion of my first meeting 
with him, and his touching allusion to Allston's 
death. In a letter to his friend Professor Morse, 
Mr. Dana writes : 

" I wish you could have seen more of Allston, particu- 
larly within the last year of his life. Frequent use of 
terms, and especially a cant use of them, is apt to 
deaden their force and significancy, even with those 
who have a spirit fitted for them ; yet let me say that 
if ever heavenly-mindedness showed itself in its /^(?and 
beauty, it made itself visible in the mind of Allston : 
humble, childlike, — himself nothing, Christ all things, 
— love overflowed him, and the harmony of the upper 
world permeated him, and harmonized for him all nature 
and all art. These were not separated from his religious 
life, because they were taken up into and sanctified 
and made beautiful. How few really feel and under- 
stand that term, the beauty of holiness ! ' Yet one is 



2IO BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

almost afraid to speak in this way, so mournfully has a 
self-presuming spiritualism desecrated spiritual things. 
May God bless you, my dear sir; and, through the 
trials which He has laid upon you, may you be fitted 
for that prosperity which in His good providence, I 
trust, is now awaiting you !" 

Brackett, a young Boston sculptor, had been 
remarkably successful in his bust of Washington 
Allston. Executed just after the painter's death, 
it stood in the sculptor's studio, and Dana came 
in to see it. He took his seat before it, and after 
a long and reverent gaze, said with infinite ten- 
derness of manner, " Ah ! he makes us all look 
down." Those who have seen the admirable 
bust will remember the elevation of its manner, 
which we believe did no more than justice to 
Allston living. 

From Dana's letters to Dr. Henry we take a 
few more extracts: 

" As to Miss Sedgwick, I have not read the particular 
work," writes Dana in May, 1838. "And the reason 
why I have not read that and several others of Miss 

S 's works is that she never interests me in her 

books. She wants refinement, deep thought, knowledge 
of human nature; her men and women all stand on 
one leg — I mean one apiece; and her views, political 
and religious, are superficial and erroneous. In private 
life I like her exceedingly for her simplicity and kind- 
ness, and for not wearing blue stockings, but I never 
care to see her in print. ... By the bye, Bancroft is 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 211 

positively engaged to the rich widow B. Bliss. One 
of her sons always went by the name of Sandie Bliss, 
which Tom Appleton ■' translates into 'Arabia Felix.'" 

When asked why he always dated his letters 
under his signature, Dana wrote: 

" I will tell you why I date at bottom instead of top. 
I have oftentimes been interrupted in the midst of 
writing a letter, so as not unfrequently to be obliged 
to leave it till another day. Now nothing exhilarates 
me more than having a letter from a friend reach me 
while It is fresh — just out of the water, so to speak. 
A letter from a friend some hundred or two miles oflf, 
written yesterday and coming to hand to day, not only 
reduces the distance between us, but gives him a sort 
of personal presence — his spiritual body a* least is 
made more present to my mind's eye and his voice to 
my mental ear. Whereas, should the letter be four or 
five days old instead, the mind immediately goes to 
work and multiplies the multiplicand of one or two 
hundred by four or five ; and presto ! my friend's be- 
yond the mountains and his spiritual body dim as mist 
to me. Thinking that others might be alTected in the 
same way with myself, I fell into the habit of dating 
when I had finished, and not when I began." 

From Pidgeon Cove, Rockport, Mass., Dana 
writes, August 17, 1842: 



* Thomas Gold Appleton, the brother-in-law of Long- 
fellow and the classmate of Motley and Wendell Phillips, 
died in 1884. He was a charming companion, and the 
author of many clever witticisms like the above. 



212 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



" Bryant and wife and child have been with us good 
three weeks. They leave in the morning for New York. 
Brackett, the young sculptor, who took my bust about 
a year since (pray don't guess at it by the engraving in 
Griswold's ' Selections of American Poets '), has been 
here and made a fine one of Bryant — a likeness, but 
not after the fashion of all the portraits I have seen of 
him, exaggerating the unpleasant parts of his face and 
missing its higher style of character, but the very re- 
verse : it is the head of Bryant the poet, nothing more 
or less." 

" Did you ever see the letter," writes Mr. Dana in 
July, 1846, "of the late Lady Flora Hastings' mother 
to the Queen } That was a fine specimen for you — a 
combination worthy of a truer age — the subject's sense 
of obedience with the noble Lady's quick sense of in- 
sult and wrong, a bowing to the crown with an erect 
rebuke of her who wore it. What a sense of loyalty 
blended with contempt for the act of her who should 
have better remembered how sacred a thing had been 
placed in her keeping ! . . . Depressing as the thought 
of leaving home is to me when the time is drawing 
nigh, I doubt not I should long ago have visited you, 
had I not such an indefinable horror (mixed with some- 
thing like anger and hatred) of steamboats. I hate 
them partly because they are modern, and in part again 
because, like all ' modern improvements,' they have de- 
stroyed so much beauty. Think of that most graceful 
of all man's inventions, that creation of air as well as 
water, a winged ship, and then of one of these mon- 
sters, ' hot from hell,' smelling of it foul and stenchy. 
Besides, I have a foolish foreboding. But no more of 
this matter." 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 21 3 

In anotlier letter the poet writes: 

"We had so mixed a company here the other night 
that such another could hardly be got together out of 
Boston, and yet the party was a small one — a Roman 
Catholic bishop and priest, an Anglo-American Catho- 
lic presbyter and layman, two ultra transcendentalists, 
a socialist, an antislavery maniac, a no-religion and 
ultra-peace man, a wounded lieutenant just from Mex- 
ico, a sprinkling of Congregationalists, and should 
have had Low-Churchmen in the persons of Bishop 
Potter and Dr. Vinton and a lay neighbor had tliey 
not been engaged." 

In 1850 he remarks: 

" With the exception of my lectures, and the trifle I 
got from an article now and then in the periodicals, 
what do you think I have cleared in the course of 
thirty years by publishing? Less than four hundred 
dollars !" 

Two years later Dana writes: 

" Now the Webster obsequies are over, there is 
nothing going on here save Spiritual Rappings and 
their concomitants. One of our judges (an ordinary 
man) is deep in the matter — deeper than he ever was 
in the law. On this being told to another of our 
judges, he quietly replied : ' I should advise him to put 
himself into communication with Judge Marshall or 
some other able lawyer.' " 

In 1853 the poet says: 

" Everybody except you and me goes to Europe now- 



214 BRYANT AND BIS FRIENDS. 

adays, but returns dissatisfied with the character of 
society at home. Two or three of my acquaintances 
are daily wishing themselves across the sea again. - I 
am quite enough dissatisfied with it without ever hav- 
ing been abroad. I thinlc I'll not go unless it is to 
stay there. It is all in vain, my dear sir : I cannot feel 
in sympathy with what is distinctively American in us. 
All I can say is I wish my country were" better than it 
is — less blustering, boastful, grasping, sharp, vulgarly 
ostentatious, less absorbed in things physical, less dead- 
of sense to our finer natures. I'm patriot enough for 
that, thank God ! — and there ends my patriotism. By 
God's help we may become a better people, a more in- 
terestingly wise, but, if we should, it will assuredly be 
through much of suffering. Prosperity is our curse ; 
chastisement — speedy chastisement would be a mercy 
to us : it may be too late to do that to us." 

A year later Mr. Dana writes: 

" My heart has always yearned for old England — 
less, to be sure, after the ' Reform Bill ' and the death 
of Coleridge ; but still the feeling is strong. I do wish 
well to my country, and trust that the Lord will lift it 
up at last. But as it is now, I cannot find that in it 
which I most long for." 

In March, 1856, the poet writes: 

" Lately I have lost the only friend of my boyhood, 
and the only one that was near me. Channing and I 
knew each other when schoolboys, were classmates in 
college, read law together, housed together, were work- 
ers together in the North Ajnerican Review, and with 
the break of two or three years when I left home, were 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 21 5 

companions till he set out on that journey, which I had 
always taken it for granted I should begin before him, 
but he had the start of me. It is all over, and I am 
heavy at heart." At the close of the year he says : " I 
am growing forgetful, through the wearing out of years 
upon me, but not of you or any of the very few left 
me ; rather my memory becomes more and more tena- 
cious of them. I sit and poke in the ashes (I still burn 
wood), and think and think upon them, and ask my 
self whether any more of them will be taken from me, or 
they be left to say, ' Well, well, poor Dana is gone ! 
One would hardly have thought he would have lived 
so long. Never in full health, and yet dying an old man 
three-score and ten, and upward ! ' . . . So you have been 
adding to your house no more, I would hope, than your 
simple needs asked of you ; for in this country we do 
not build for our children's children — no, not so much 
as for our own children. Scarcely have the feet of the 
mourners followed us to the grave than the tread of 
strangers is heard on our floors. We build for stran- 
gers ; there is no heart in it. We build without hope, 
that hope which has in it the tenderness of memory — 
the hope that those sprung of us will dwell where we 
have dwelt, sit by the fires that we had sat by, and go 
through the daily rounds of life where we had gone 
through them." 

Writing in 1859, Mr. Dana says: 

" Years back, some thirty five or six, — only think 
on't ! — I passed up your beautiful river, spent a day at 
Verplanck's father's at Fishkill, and another at Pough- 
keepsie along with my old friend who has passed away, 
and Prof. Channing. Long ago as it is, I have not lost 



2l6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the impression that the scenery made upon me. Then, 
again, there is your and my visit to that right old- 
fashioned gentleman. Dr. Creighton, that is fresh with 
me. How at home was one made to feel immediately 
in that substantial dwelling ! And well indeed should 
I like to BE under your roof for a while, but the tran- 
sition to it ! Bryant has often asked me again to his 
beautiful place, and John Wallace, with whom and his 
late brother I spent most pleasantly some three weeks 
wlien lecturing in Philadelphia, has not only pressed my 
visiting him, but has also offered to meet me in New 
York and see me to his house. Yet here I am, and do 
not know but that I shall be, till I go to that other 
house whither Death takes us without so much as say- 
ing ' By your leave.' " 

In June, 1861, after describing his daughter's 
work for the soldiers in Union Hall, Boston, Mr. 
Dana adds: 

" By the way, where Union Hall stands, stood before 
and for a time after the Revolution the once well-known 
Liberty Tree, under which my grandfather, Richard 
Dana, administered to Oliver an oath not to accept 
from our mother-country the office of mandamus coun- 
sellor, for doing which, had we been defeated, the old 
gentleman would probably have been hanged from the 
very tree, and of consequence I should not have been 
sitting here scribbling to my fast friend. A tree cut in 
stone is inserted into the outside wall of the Hall." 

Dana in December, 1867, writes: 

" If the warmth of heart has cooled off, where the 
reverence that should have come up in its place ? Am 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 21/ 

I not an octogeizarzan by more than a month ? More 
than that, am I not a learned Doctor — not a mere D.D. 
like yourself, but a stately LL.D. ? Bethink j'^ou what 
is due to me, and manifest your respect in good time, 
and your repentance along with it, lest I should go 
hence before having pronounced forgiveness upon you. 
Now, do not toss back your head and shout out at my 
new honours. I am only in the condition of our old 
clergymen upon whom Havard College was so in the 
habit of bestowing a D,D. just as they were about step- 
ping into their several graves, that the bestowing of the 
degi'ee came to be called 'administering extreme unc- 
tion.' It was no doubt kindly meant by Williams Col- 
lege. So far I sincerely thank them for it. But know- 
ing that I had no true right to it, I was sorry that it 
was done. I believe, too, in certain honours and marks 
of distinction, and am pleased when they are well be- 
stowed, but have a foolish kind of shrinking from them 
so far as relates to my particular self. I like stately 

processions, but always as a looker-on I send by 

this mail Whipple's Eulogy on Andrew. You are some- 
what a hard critic I know, yet I am confident that you 
will be pleased with it for its purity of style, its fine 
thought, and for the impression that it leaves upon the 
mind; that though the character it portrays seems 
almost to pass that of any single man, it must be true. 
As I listened to W. I found myself saying in mind, 'Of 
what other man could all this be said, yet how true it 
is ! He was of a noble and sweet nature. How he 
made you love and respect him ! The most com- 
panionable of men, yet the hardest of workers ; self- 
denying, limited in means, but always helping the 
needy. I do miss our near neighbor." 



2l8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

The last letter written by the poet to Prof. 
Henry is dated December i8, 1877. He says: 

" Thougli I have been so long in sending you my 
thanks for the Churchman, you must not think me any 
the less thankful. It has been all the time in my heart, 
though it has not oozed out at my finger-ends. My 
old brain is drying up, I believe. At any rate it warns 
me to stop after having for a few minutes found a few 
nothings. And my hand having been hurt, serves me 
little better. . . . Many acquaintances called to see me 
on my ninetieth birthday, and others almost buried me 
in flowers. At my burial, had it been that instead, 
they could not have done more. I have said to my 
children, ' No flowers on my coffin nor any on my grave. 
Leave them for little children.' " 

In another letter Mr. Dana writes of Coleridge 
as "that dear, great man," and regrets that his 
works are not more studied — " they are not 
to be read, in the common acceptation of the 
word. Study his 'Friend,' his 'Aids to Reflec- 
tion,' his 'Church and State';" and alludes to 
another favouiite author, as " that beautiful crea- 
ture, Charles Lamb." Describing a dinner at 
Bryant's, he says: 

"After dinner Halleck and I talked monarchism, 
with nobility and a third order — enough to prevent 
despotism, nothing more. Bryant sat by, hearing us. 
' Why,' said he, ' you are not in earnest ? ' ' Never more 
so, was our answer. Bryant still holds to simple democ- 
racy, I believe. How far Mr. Halleck may have modi- 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 1*9 

fied his creed, I know not. For myself, I am only better 
than ever satisfied what an incorrigible creature man is 
to govern under the wisest adopted forms. But man 
will have to come to orders and degrees at last," 

It was a perfect August day during the year 
1878 when we drove along the rocky coast of Cape 
Ann, from Beverly through Beverly Farms and 
past Manchester-by-the-Sea, on a visit to this 
oldest of American poets, whose wild and most 
picturesque summer retreat was situated a mile 
or more beyt)nd the latter place. Entering his 
simple gate, and passing along the private drive- 
way fringed with forest-trees and apparently, 
like the avenue, left undisturbed as nature made 
them, a few minutes' drive brought us in sight of 
the two-story mansion standing on the edge of a 
lofty lawn or bluff overlooking the sea — altogether 
a place singularly solitary, and almost savage. 
The house, built some twoscore years ago by its 
aged owner, was surmounted by a balustrade on 
the sloping roof, after the fashion of Lowell's 
and Longfellow's colonial homes at Cambridge. 
Alighting and passing through the hall to the por- 
tico on the opposite side, I saw a scene of surpass- 
ing grandeur and beauty. Below, a broad expanse 
of ocean under a cloudless blue sky; on either 
side, the rocky headlands of "Shark's Mouth" 
and " Eagle's Head " thrusting themselves well 
out into the sea, thus forming a small crescent- 
shaped bay, from the sandy shore of which came 



220 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the ceaseless murmuring of the waves of the 
broad Atlantic, breaking gently on the smooth 
white beach some sixty or seventy feet beneath, 
and so near that a stone could easily be cast 
into the sea. The house, standing on the very 
verge of an almost perpendicular cliff, had no 
near or visible neighbours except the white-sailed 
ships and steamers passing and repassing, and, 
at the distance of perhaps half a mile to the west, 
a handsome modern residence, towering above 
the surrounding trees; in the background be- 
yond, the light-houses of Boston, Salem, and 
Marblehead harbours. Not far from the beach 
is a small rocky island, partially covered with a 
growth of stunted trees, and away to the east 
the half-sunken reef where the Hesperus was 
wrecked, the sad story of which has been told in 
the tender and touching ballad of "Norman's 
Woe." 

None of the family were to be seen at the time 
except a solitary and venerable figure basking in 
the warm southern sunshine, on a portico almost 
overhanging the sobbing sea below, and engaged 
in reading without glasses the August number of 
an English magazine. As he courteously and 
easily rose from his chair I saw before me one 
of whom, as of ancient Nestor, might be said, 

" Age lies heavy on thy limbs." 

He was under the usual height, broad-shouldered 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 221 

but slight, still holding himself tolerably erect, 
with sight and hearing unimpaired, his eloquent 
and expressive blue eyes undimmed, and his pale 
countenance and fine regular features presenting 
a mingled air of sadness and unmistakable refine- 
ment, combined with the sweet high-born cour- 
tesy of the old school of gentlemen. His silvery 
hair, reaching to his shoulders, and his full, flow- 
ing beard and long moustache of the same colour, 
assisted in making him in his tout e?iseinble one of 
the finest living pictures that I have ever seen 
of noble and venerable age. I stood in the 
presence of Richard Henry Dana, the patriarch 
of American poets. Although over ninety years 
of age, he was still in the possession of a fair 
measure of healtli and strength, and in the enjoy- 
ment of a serene and sunny old age, surrounded 
by children and grandchildren. He once said to 
me that he never possessed what Sydney Smith 
called "a good, stout bodily machine," but was 
born, like Bryant, with a frail and feeble body. 
He distinctly remembered the death of Wash- 
ington, and was an intelligent listener, on the 
succeeding Sunday, to a discourse delivered on 
that subject by the Rev. Theodore Dehon in 
Trinity Church, Newport, the rector taking for 
his text, " Know ye not that there is a prince and 
a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" 

Dana's mental faculties were in no way weak- 
ened, but perhaps slightly more sluggish in ac- 



222 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

tion, than when I first saw him in his Boston 
home some ten years previous. He spoke with 
deep feeling of the death of Bryant and Duyck- 
inck, and said that he had written to the latter a 
few days before his decease,* and that he should 
soon follow them. He also alluded to the loss 

of another life-long friend, Mrs. of Boston, 

who passed away a few days before the date of 



* Dear Mr. Duyckinck : I am greatly troubled to hear 
through General Wilson that for some time you have been 
so ill as to be confined to your house. Standing on the very 
verge of an unusually long life, you may well suppose that 
for the most part I am looking off over the unending sea, 
stretching on and on beyond it. Yet it is not alone on 
what is to come that my thoughts are tending: they turn back 
with more vividness than ever, and with a distinctness nigh 
marvellous, towards the long past. I am mentally living 
between the past and future : the present is hardly within 
my consciousness — at the most is but a sort of dim hazi- 
ness through which the past comes back to me with a near- 
ness and distinctness that startles me. I see it, and you 
I see with a fresh presence as you used to meet me with 
your cordial greetings in my frequent calls — greetings that 
made me forget for a time that I was a stranger in New 
York. I well remember, too, the gratification, before we 
were personally acquainted, that your notice of me in your 
periodical \_The Literary IVor/d^ gave me. I had but little 
notice from the public at the time, and to be so noticed in arti- 
cles so well written was no little comfort to me — it gave me 
heart. How can I but look back, far gone in my ninety-first 
year, as I am ? The last of my oldest friends, who I trusted 
would follow me, has just gone before — the chairs are all 
empty, and I am left sitting alone. You came later. I pray, 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 223 

my visit in the last week of August. The aged 
poet talked of Bryant's wonderful literary activ- 
ity, maintained to the very last, and remarked that 
although he himself had not practised it, he be- 
lieved in the philosophy of Cicero as to the effi- 
cacy of constant activity in keeping the mental 
powers in repair during old age. Some one has 
said, headded, that the mind of an old man is like 
an old horse — if you would get any work out of 
it, you must woi'k it all the time. 

Speaking of Bryant's death, the poet remarked, 
" I am the sole survivor among my literary friends 
and contemporaries — Channing and Allston, 
Cooper, Irving, Halleck, Percival, Verplanck, and 
now Bryant. All — all gone before me !" An- 
swering a question about Allston, Mr. Dana said: 
" Yes, I made some effort, as Bryant told you, to 
collect material for a life of Allston, but I did not 
proceed with it. I lost heart in the matter, and 
so abandoned it. Yes, I hope it may yet be 
done. You have perhaps met with my letter 
on the subject in the Life of Morse, and have seen 
what my son has written of him in the volume, 



don't you leave me. We shall not meet in the body here; 
but you can write me, and that is something like meeting 
in spirit. With old esteem, 

Richard H. Dana, 

Boston, 43 Chestnut Street, 

August 5, 1878. 
Evert A. Duyckinck, Esq. 



224 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

which he edited, of Allston's Lectures on Art." 
" Do you like Leslie's portrait of him ?" " Great- 
ly, and I am pleased that it is in so safe a place as 
your National Academy. It was a generous act 
on the part of Morse to purchase and present 
the picture." 

" No recent biography can be compared to 
Scott's," continued Mr. Dana, "and I know of 
few authors with whom it is possible for the 
reader to become so well acquainted. Even his 
inner life is open to us in the pages of his son- 
in-law's most interesting biography." Again 
alluding to Scott, he said : " Inasmuch as poetry 
is an infinitely higher thing than romance, I 
believe, contrary to the general judgment, that it 
is on his poetry, so Homeric in its character, and 
not on his novels, that Sir Walter's title to im- 
mortality will mainly rest." In speaking of 
Wordsworth he said : " Above all other writers 
of the nineteenth century, except Coleridge, I 
should have most wished to see the poet of Ry- 
dal Mount ;" and alluding to his writings, com- 
pared them, as was said by an old divine of the 
Scriptures, to " a river, wherein there are as well 
shallow foords for lambes to wade in, as depths 
for the elephant to swim in." . . . "Among our 
own poets Bryant stands first. Your friend 
Halleck has produced the best lyric poem yet 
written in this country. He should have given 
us more," 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. 22 = 



Dana alluded to himself in the course of our 
conversation as an idle dreamer and an industri- 
ous but fastidious reader, who had done little else 
for twoscore years, adding a brief quotation in 
the following lines from Longfellow's " Palin- 
genesis :" 

" I lie upon the headland height, and listen 
To the incessant sobbing of the sea." 

He also made use of a stanza from a hymn, 
which he remarked was a great favourite of his: 

" A few more storms shall beat 
On this wild rocky shore, 
And I shall be where tempests cease, 
And surges swell no more." 

While conversing about the authors of the 
Old World, the venerable poet, in referring to 
the country of Coleridge and Southey, happily 
described it, in the words of his favourite au- 
thor, as 

" That precious stone set in the silver sea;" 

and said that it was one of the greatest regrets 
and disappointments of his long life that he 
"must go hence without having seen or set foot 
on the 'sceptred isle.' " 

Before we parted Mr. Dana desired me to 
present his kind regards to the daughter of his 
oldest friend, and said, as we separated, " Pray 



226 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

keep me in remembrance if we never meet again 
'on this bank and shoal of time.'" 

Twice during the last decade of Dana's life he 
met with carriage accidents. On the second 
occasion the bottom of the rockaway fell out, 
and the whole thing gave way most mysteriously, 
after the manner of Holmes' historic one-horse 
shay. Mr. Dana was assisted into No. 74 Beacon 
Street, Boston, a good deal shaken by his fall, 
from which, however, more fortunate than his 
friend Bryant, he experienced no more injury 
than an ugly cut on the side of his head. 

A trait common to Carlyle, Dana, and Tenny- 
son was a dislike to general society, with the 
power to be a delightful companion under cer- 
tain circumstances. Another prominent trait of 
the old poet was his affection for his three sisters, 
which was so strong that he was never separated 
from them; while one of his peculiarities was as 
stated to the writer by a lady, who said, " It was 
sometimes with difficulty I could avoid smil- 
ing at Mr. Dana's regular remark that he had 
been ill, made in conversation, as well as in his 
correspondence." 

Dana wrote little, less perhaps than he would 
have done had he received more encouragement, 
and also possessed a temperament as active as it 
was meditative, — but he did some good work, 
and his reputation rests on a secure foundation, 
too secure to be disturbed. He did enough for 



RICHARD HENRY DANA, 22/ 

assured fame. His life, as I have already said, 
was chiefly that of a literary recluse, but in win- 
ter, when in Boston, good music, and especially 
classical music, and anything worth seeing in 
the way of art — which he loved in all its aspects 
— was certain to draw the poet from the seclu- 
sion of his quiet home on Chestnut Street. 

For a few days before the end came, Dana 
gradually failed, and at length passed away 
peacefully, and, as he had often prayed, pain- 
lessly, dying of no other disease than old age, 
in Boston, on Sunday, February 2, 1879, O" the 
same day of the month and at the same hour of 
the day that Mrs. Dana and AUston had died. 
On the following Wednesday he was unostenta- 
tiously placed by the side of his ancestors in the 
family vault at Cambridge. Longfellow, one of 
whose daughters married Dana's only grandson, 
was present, and wrote of the occasion as fol- 
lows : 

" In the old churchyard of his native town, 
And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall, 
We laid him in the sleep that comes to all, 
And left him to his rest and his renown. 

The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped down 
White flowers of Paradise to strew his pall; — 
The dead around him seemed to wake, and call 
His name, as worthy of so white a crown. 

And now the moon is shining on the scene, 
And the broad sheet of snow is written o'er 
With shadows cruciform of leafless trees, 



228 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

As once the winding-sheet of Saladin 

With chapters of the Koran; but ah! more 
Mysterious and triumphant signs are these!" 

Except Dana, we do not recall any distin- 
guished European or American writer who has 
passed, by nearly two years, his ninth decade 
with unclouded mind. Brougham and Humboldt 
died at ninety, while Samuel Rogers (in whose 
house the writer happened to be on the very 
day when the banker-poet was ninety-two) had 
been dead to the living world for several years be- 
fore the end came, i8th December, 1855. He was 
born 30th July, 1763. His mind was first affected 
by being thrown from a carriage, and a similar 
accident was the cause of loss of memory to Jo- 
siah Quincy, who also reached the age of Dana 
and Rogers. Several illustrious lawyers and 
judges have attained to ninety- five ; Titian died 
in his hundredth year; Count Waldeck, another 
artist, and archaeologist also, sent me a portrait 
and a letter when he was one hundred and seven 
(he lived two years longer); and Saadi, the Per- 
sian poet, is said to have reached the same age. 
Dana's career included the entire literary his- 
tory of his native land as a nation down to the 
day of his death; Barlow's " Vision of Columbus" 
having first appeared on the day after the poet 
was baptized, on Sunday, November 18, 1787, by 
the Rev. Timothy Hilliard, pastor of the First 
Church, Boston: — 

" Lord, keep his memory green !" 



RICHARD HENRY DANA. i2g 

According to the ancient Greek adage, "Whom 
the gods love die young." The same thought 
was expressed by an English poet in one of the 
most beautiful epitaphs ever written — that on a 
new-born infant, by Bishop Lowth : 

'Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, 

Death came with timely care, 
The op'ning bud to Heaven conveyed, 

And bade it blossom there! 

But if it be a blessing or sign of Divine favour to 
die young, surely it is a still greater blessing to 
live long, happy, useful, spotless lives, and sink 
serenely, full of years, into the grave, regretted 
and esteemed, like the early American poets and 
attached friends, Fitz-Greene Haileck, William 
Cullen Bryant, and Richard Henry Dana, whose 
combined ages amounted to more than two hun- 
dred and fifty years ! 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 

1789-1851. 

James Fenimore Cooper, whose writings are 
instinct with the spirit of nationality, stands at 
the head of American novelists. The Edinburgh 
Review long ago said : " The empire of the sea 
has been conceded to Cooper by acclamation ; 
and in the lonely desert or untrodden prarie, 
among the savage Indians or scarcely less savage 
settlers, all acknowledge his dominion. 

' Within this circle none dare move but he.' " 

Cooper was born at Burlington, N. J., Septem- 
ber 15, 1789, one of twelve children of Judge 
Cooper and his wife Elizabeth Fenimore. He 
was fourth in descent from James Cooper of 
Stratford-upon-Avon, — that famous Warwick- 
shire hamlet which gave birth to Shakespeare, — 
who moved to the New World in 1679, and four 
years later purchased property in Philadelphia. 
When the future writer was but thirteen months 
old, the family, consisting, with the servants, of 
fifteen persons, moved from Burlington to a lo- 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 23 1 

cality in the adjoining State of New York, now 
called Cooperstown, on the shore of Otsego Lake, 
where the judge owned many thousands of acres. 
Here he erected a mansion known as Otsego 
Hall, and here in this wild frontier region James 
spent his boyhood, becoming familiar with its 
woods and waters, which he afterwards so Avell 
described, "at the very time when the first wave 
of civilization was breaking against its hills." The 
boy's early instruction was received in the vil- 
lage school, from which he was sent to Albany to 
study as a private pupil with the Rev. J. Ellison, 
the English Rector of St. Peter's Episcopal 
Church. At thirteen he entered Yale College, — 
with the exception of the poet Hillhouse, the 
youngest member of his class, — and three years 
later was dismissed, owing to some boyish frolics. 
His father, then a member of Congress, obtained 
for his son a commission in the navy, after hav- 
ing served a short apprenticeship of a year on 
board a merchant-ship, the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis not being in existence at that time. 
Cooper's first service afloat in the navy was in 
the summer of 1806. Having on January i, 181 1, 
married Miss Susan Augusta DeLancey, a sister 
of Bishop DeLancey of Western New York, 
Cooper resigned his position in the navy, and 
settled at Mamaroneck, near New York City. 
Numerous children were born to him, of whom 
three daughters, including Susan Fenimore, the 



232 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

author, and his youngest child, Paul, a prosper- 
ous lawyer of Albany, survive. 

While one evening reading a new novel descrip- 
tive of English society, which did not please him. 
Cooper said to his wife, " I believe I could write 
a better book myself." Challenged to make 
good the boast, he wrote a few chapters, and, re- 
ceiving the approval and encouragement of his 
friends, including Charles Wilkes, he completed 
the story, which was published anonymously in 
1820, at his own expense, and attracted little at- 
tention. It was a tale of country life on the 
English model, and was called "Precaution." 
In the following year appeared "The Spy: a 
Tale of the Neutral Ground," displaying more 
skill and power. This charming story, founded 
upon incidents connected with the American 
Revolution, appealed strongly to the sympathies 
of his countrymen, and became a great favourite, 
as it is still, after a lapse of sixty-three years. 
"The Spy" was equally successful in Europe, be- 
ing translated into nearly all the Continental lan- 
guages, making the name of its author almost as 
well known in the Old World as the New. In 
not a single one of the great libraries of Europe, 
when I visited them in 1883, did I fail to find 
some of Cooper's novels, and generally the writ- 
ings of Irving and Longfellow. Tlie writer has 
seen "The Spy" in the Arabic in Algeria and 
Morocco, in the Norwegian in Lapland, and in 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 233 

the Russian in the heart of that country ; and 
he was informed by an English friend that it 
had been translated and published in Persian ! 
No work translated from the English language 
is so well known in Mexico and. South America 
as "The Spy." 

When Halleck went abroad in July, 1822, he 
carried with him the proof-sheets of the first one 
hundred pages of "The Pioneers," which his 
friend Cooper wished to have published in Eng- 
land. It was issued in New York, and in Lon- 
don by Murray, during the winter of 1822-23, 
followed in 1824 by "The Pilot,"* works which 
shared public attention at home and abroad with 
the Waverley novels. From that time until the 
publication, in 1850, of his thirty-second and last 
work of fiction, being five more than was written 



* While "The Pilot" was passing through the press 
Cooper read a portion of it to a critical friend, who was 
charmed with it, and as a further test he selected a former 
shipmate as a critic, and read a few chapters to him as Scott 
had read the hunting scene of the " Lady of the Lake" to 
an old sportsman. When he came to the beating out from 
the " Devil's Grip," his auditor became restless, rose from 
his seat, and paced the floor with feverish strides. There 
was no mistaking the impression, for not a detail escaped 
him. " It is all very well, my fine fellow, but you have let 
your jib stand too long." It was the counterpart of "He 
will spoil his dogs" of Scott's hunting critic. But Cooper. ■ 
fully satisfied with the experiment, accepted the criticism, 
and blew his jib out of the bolt-ropes. 



234 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS 

by Sir Walter Scott, Cooper enjoyed an uninter- 
rupted career of literary prosperity. Several 
years after his death a noble uniform edition of 
his novels, illustrated by Darley, was issued in 
thirty-two octavo volumes, of which it is asserted 
fifty thousand copies are sold annually. 

In the year 1826 Cooper visited Europe, the 
fruit of which was a manly vindication of the 
land of his birth from many current misrepre- 
sentations, in his "Notions of Americans." His 
friend the Admirable Croaker, as Cooper in 
writing to Irving called Halleck, in his poem of 
" Red Jacket" refers in this wise to this work 
and its author: 

" Cooper, whose name is with his country's woven, 
First in her fields, her pioneer of mind; 
A wanderer now in other lands, has proven 
The love for the young land he left behind; 

" And throned her in the senate hall of nations, 
Robed like the deluge rainbow, heaven -wrought 
Magnificent as his own mind's creations, 
And beautiful as its green world of thought; 

' And faithful to the Act of Congress, quoted 

As law authority, it passed nem. con.: 
He writes that we are, as ourselves have voted. 
The most enlightened people ever known. 

" That all our work is happy as a Sunday 

In Paris, full of song and dance and laugh; 
And that, from Orleans to the Bay of Fundy, 
There's not a bailiff or an epitaph. 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 235 

"And furthermore — in fifty years, or sooner, 
We shall export our poetry and wine; 
And our brave fleet, eight frigates and a schooner, 
Will sweep the seas from Zembla to the Line." 

Cooper also wrote while abroad " Gleanings 
in Europe," '* Sketches of Switzerland," and sev- 
eral other works, which enjoyed a large measure 
of popularity half a century ago; American 
books of Old World travel being less common 
at that period than the present, when it may al- 
most be said they appear in battalions. 

Soon after his return from Europe, Cooper 
gave to the world his valuable and elaborate 
work on the United States Navy, which has 
passed through numerous editions, and is still 
the standard history of the American naval ser- 
vice. In addition to this work, which was re- 
published in England and led to considerable 
controversy, he published two volumes of "The 
Lives of American Naval Officers." The novel- 
ist expended, in the course of his literary life, 
much time and strength on newspaper and per- 
sonal controversies, not infrequently carried to 
the courts, and for the most part growing out of 
the rather severe strictures on his own coun- 
trymen which he introduced into his writings — 
notably in "Homeward Bound." Greenough the 
sculptor expostulated with Cooper, as did many 
other friends, and wrote to him from Florence, 
Italy, after reading that novel: " I think you lose 



236 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

your hold on the American public by rubbing 
down their shins with brickbats, as you do." 

Of the many eminent men that Cooper met in 
Europe, including Sir Walter Scott* and Lafay- 
ette, " he appeared," said Halleck to the writer, 
" to have the sunniest recollections of the witty 
canon of St. Paul, with whom he had several 
good-natured controversies at dinner-tables and 
elsewhere. f Yes," continued the poet, "I met 
Cooper soon after his marriage, and we were al- 
ways the best of friends. When I was in Paris," 
added Halleck, " ' The Spy' was attributed to Miss 
Fanny Wright, a Scotch lady who was for a time 
a public lecturer in the United States, on morals 
and religion from a somewhat infidel point of 
view. Her chief theme was 'just knowledge,' 
which she pronounced joost nolidge. She wrote 



* In his diary, Scott says they met at the Princess Galit- 
zin's in Paris, in November, 1826; "so the Scotch and 
American lions took the field together." 

f Another of our idols shattered. "I was acquainted 
with Sidney Smith," writes the second Duke of Wellington to 
the author, "and wish, like yourself, that my acquaintance 
had been confined to sitting in his chair at his son-in-law's 
dinner-table: for I honour cleverness, particularly when it is 
light-hearted and blithesome; but I disliked Sidney Smith, 
for he was noisy, tyrannical, and vulgar. Unfortunately he 
had a very loud voice, which he made louder still if anybody 
attempted to amuse the company but himself. You must 
not suppose that I ever had any pretension of the kind in 
his presence. I was but a young and silent spectator," 



JAMES FEN I MORE COOPER. 237 

an unsuccessful play called 'Altorf,' which was 
produced at the Park Theatre." In conversation 
on one occasion with my father, Cooper remarked 
that of all his writings he preferred "The Path- 
finder" and " The Deerslayer." The series of 
which these two are the first and the last, were 
the perpetual delight of the elder Dumas, who 
deemed '' Leatherstocking" perhaps the most in- 
teresting creation in all the realm of fiction — an 
opinion in which his poet-friend Halleck shared; 
and in 1883 Victor Hugo said to the writer, that, 
excepting the authors of France, " Cooper was 
the greatest novelist of the century." About 
the same period, at Cannes, Sir Charles Augustus 
Murra}^, speaking of his well-known and popu- 
lar Indian story of "The Prairie Bird," and of 
his having spent a year in early life among the 
Pawnees, remarked: "In an interview with me 
Fenimore Cooper said, alluding to the publi- 
cation of 'The Prairie Bird,' ' You have had the 
advantage of me, for I never was among the In- 
dians. All that I know of them is from reading, 
and from hearing my father speak of them. He 
saw a great deal of them when he went to the 
western part of New York State, about the close 
of the past century.' " 

An undated letter, which I do not think has 
been in print, addressed to the editor of the 
Knickerbocker Afagazine by Irving, refers as fol- 
lows to "The Pathfinder:" 



238 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



" I hope you have performed your promise, and that 
we shall see an extended critique on Cooper's new- 
novel in your next number, in which the author will 
receive ample justice. I have just read the ' Path- 
finder,' and it has given me a still higher opinion than 
ever of Cooper's head and heart. It is an admirable 
production, full of noble pictures of exalted virtue in 
the humbler paths of life. The characters of ' The 
Pathfinder ' and ' Mabel Dunham ' are noble concep- 
tions, and capitally sustained. The old salt-water cap- 
tain also is a masterpiece, with his nautical wisdom, 
his contempt for fresh water, and his 'point no point ' 
logic. Let no one say, after reading ' Mabel Dunham,' 
that Cooper cannot draw a female character. It is a 
beautiful illustration of the female virtue under curious 
trials — some of the most terrific, others of the most 
delicate and touching nature. The death-bed scene, 
where she prays beside her father, is one of the most 
affecting things I have ever read ; and yet how com- 
pletely free from any overwrought sentiment or pathos ! 
Tlie proof to me of the great genius displayed in this 
work is the pure and simple elements with which the 
author has wrought out his effects. The story has 
nothing complicated : it is a mere straightforward 
narrative, and the characters are few." 

Conversing with the author on a summer day 
at Guilford, Halleck said of Cooper: " He is 
colonel of the literary regiment; Irving, lieuten- 
ant-colonel; Bryant, the major; while Longfel- 
low, Whittier, Holmes, Dana, and myself may be 
considered captains. . . . Two or three of Coop- 
er's characters I consider the first in American fie- 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 239 

tion. Which are they ? Why, Leatherstocking, 
Long Tom Coffin, and Uncas. Why this no- 
ble creation has been so neglected by painters 
and sculptors I am at a loss to understand. 
Certainly there is no nobler Indian character 
depicted in our literature. Thackeray calls the 
first of these immortal creations — and he was 
certainly a competent judge — one of 'the great 
prize-men ' of fiction, better perhaps than any of 
Scott's men, and ranks dear old ' Natty Bump- 
po ' with Uncle Toby, Sir Roger de Coverley, and 
Falstaff — heroic figures all." "If anything from 
the pen of the writer of these romances," said 
Cooper toward the close of his life, "is at all to 
outlive himself, it is unquestionably the series 
of 'The Leatherstocking Tales.' To say this is 
not to predict a very lasting reputation for the 
series itself, but simply to express the belief that 
it will outlast any or all of the works from the 
same hand." 

During Cooper's last autumn on earth he was 
contemplating another Leatherstocking story 
to cover the interesting Revolutionary period, 
deeming that he had not entirely exhausted 
the charming and original character; but he 
was unfortunately turned aside from his pur- 
pose by the cold water thrown on the project 
by his publisher, who expressed doubts of its 
success, and the danger of injuring the commer- 
cial value of the series. As Bryant remarks in 



240 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

his admirable address on Cooper, " Those wlio 
consider what new resources it yielded him in 
' The Pathfinder ' and ' The Deerslayer ' will read- 
ily conclude that he [Cooper] was not mistaken." 

Apropos of Bryant and Cooper, I remember 
hearing the poet relate a little anecdote of a dis- 
putatious man as he heard it told by the novel- 
ist: "Why, it is as plain as that two and two 
make four." "But I deny that too, for two and 
two make twenty-two." 

The novelist's son writes to the author from 
Albany, May 19, 1884: "I should be glad to fur- 
nish you with some unpublished matter such as 
you speak of for your notice, if it were not that 
I feel debarred from doing so by my father's 
request that his family should not supply bio- 
graphical material. Furthermore, what I pos- 
sess or could command is not perhaps of inter- 
est enough to publish." Another member of 
Mr. Cooper's family remarks: 

" Mr. Lounsbury's book has been a disappointment. 
While he has done justice to the high moral tone of 
the novelist, the sketch of his social character is ab- 
surdly distorted. He represents Cooper as a cold, 
gloomy cynic; in fact, he was generally considered a 
very agreeable companion, full of animated conversa- 
tion. His social feelings were very strong. He was 
remarkably fond of children, and very indulgent to 
young people, entering with zest into their pleasures. 
Had Mr. Lounsbury known Cooper personally, he 
would have written a \er3^ different book. Some of 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 24 1 

his comments are absurdly erroneous, as for instance 
where he says Cooper was a ' Puritan of ihe Puritans ;' 
for never was there a nature more opposed to the nar- 
row prejudices of Puritanism. And what could be 
more absurd than to say that he had a lingering weak- 
ness for poor George the Third ! . . . Cooper intended 
writing another Leatherstocking tale of the date of 
the Revolution, the scene to be laid at Niagara. I 
have always regretted that he did not carry out this 
plan ; for he greatly admired Niagara, and would 
doubtless have left us some fine descriptions of that 
grand cataract. " 

It was my privilege to have two glimpses of 
Cooper and a few words of conversation with 
him, but not my good-fortune to have enjoyed 
any measure of intimacy with him, as with some 
others of our early authors. On the first occa- 
sion, as I was standing at the closed door of a 
Broadway bookstore in conversation with a 
friend, I opened the door for a noble specimen 
of a man possessing a massive and compact 
form, who approached from the counting-room 
to pass out, and who acknowledged the act with 
a gracious bow, and " I thank you, sir." He 
was, as my companion informed me afterwards, 
the novelist Cooper, coming from an interview 
with his publisher concerning his last work, 
"The Ways of the Hour." It was early in the 
following year that I had the honour of being 
presented to him. 



242 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

The distinguished author died at his resi- 
dence, Cooperstown, September 14, 185 1, being 
then in his sixty-second year, and since that 
time his beautiful home, known as Otsego Hall, 
has been destroyed by fire and the property 
passed into other hands. He was buried among 
his kindred, in the family inclosure in the Epis- 
copal churchyard of Christ Church, and beneath 
the shadows of a fine fir-tree, planted by him- 
self, and several graceful elms and maples. The 
marble above his grave bears these simple lines: 

James Fenimore Cooper. 
Born September 15, 1789, 
Died September 14, 1851. 

Six months after his death a public meeting 
(as many of my readers will remember) was held 
in honour of his memory — an occasion which no 
one who had the good-fortune to be present 
will be likely ever to forget. The place of meet- 
ing was in New York, and the presiding officer 
was Daniel Webster, with Irving and Bryant by 
his side. The great statesman addressed the 
large assemblage, speaking for the last time in 
New York, and was followed by Bryant in an 
appreciative and poetical address, now included 
in his prose writings. 

" Cooper exemplified in his literary career a story he 
was in the habit of telling of one of his early adven- 
tures. While he was in the navv he was travelling in 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 243 

the wilderness bordering upon Ontario. The party to 
which he belonged came upon an inn, where they were 
not expected. The landlord was totally unprepared, 
and met them with a sorrowful countenance. There 
was, he assured them, absolutely nothing in the house 
that was fit to eat. When asked what he had that was 
not fit to eat, he could only say in reply that he could 
furnish them with venison, pheasant, wild-duck, and 
some fresh fish. To the astonished question of what bet- 
ter he supposed they could wish, the landlord meekly 
replied that he thought they might have wanted some 
salt pork. The story was truer of Cooper himself than 
of his innkeeper. Nature he could depict, and the 
wild life led in it, so that all men stood ready and 
eager to gaze on the pictures he drew. He chose too 
often to inflict upon them instead of it the most com- 
monplace of moralizing, the stalest disquisitions upon 
manners and customs, and the driest discussions of 
politics and theology." 

This acute and striking criticism is extracted 
from a recent work on Cooper* by Professor 
Lounsbury, who concludes his biography of 
the novelist in these words: *' America has 
had among her representatives of the irritable 
race of writers many who have shown more — far 
more — ability to get on pleasantly with their fel- 
lows than Cooper. She has had several gifted 
with higher spiritual insight than he, with 



* James Fenimore Cooper. By Thomas R. Lounsbury, 
Professor of English Literature in the ShefHeld Scientific 
School, Yale College. Boston. 1883. 



244 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

broader and juster views of life, with finer ideals 
of literary art, and above all, with far greater 
delicacy of taste. But she counts on the scanty 
roll of her men of letters the name of no one 
who acted from purer patriotism or loftier prin- 
ciple. She finds among them all no manlier na- 
ture and no more heroic soul." 

While monuments, statues, and busts have 
been erected to Bryant, Halleck, Irving, John 
Howard Payne, Edgar A. Poe, and William Gil- 
more Simms, his country has for more than three 
decades neglected to honour the memory of her 
greatest author with any other memorial than 
the unimportant column at Cooperstown, sur- 
mounted by the figure of " Leatherstocking." 
It is to be wished that his statue might be set 
up by the side of Scott's in the Central Park of 
New York; but perhaps it is unnecessary, for, as 
Webster well said, " The enduring monuments 
of Fenimore Cooper are his works, and while 
the love of country continues to prevail, liis 
memory will exist in the hearts of the people." 




I 




FITZ GREENE HALLECK. 

1790-1867. 

Conspicuous among the ancient towns of 
Connecticut is Guilford, tlie birthplace of Fitz- 
Greene Hallecl^, one of the earliest, as he is among 
the most admired, of American poets. In paus- 
ing to give some account of the old town, we 
trust we shall not be charged with rivalling the 
Greek traveller who began his chapter on Athens 
with a disquisition on the formation of the 
Acropolis rock. The poet on more than one 
occasion playfully boasted to the writer that 
there were none but gentlemen born in his na- 
tive town of Guilford, tlieir mechanics and la- 
bourers all being importations from New Haven 
and elsewhere. Its early history shows, what- 
ever may be the character of the people of the 
present day, that the town was certainly settled 
by a very superior class of young men collected 
in England, chiefly from the counties of Kent 
and Sussex, with a few from Huntingdon and 
Cambridgeshire : all were educated, and several 
were graduates of the universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge. They embarked for the New World 
in company with the Rev. Henry Whitfield, who 



246 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

had been a clergyman of the Church of England, 
accompanying the eloquent preacher from a feel- 
ing of attachment to him and to his teaching. 
He became the friend and associate of such men 
as Cotton, Hooker, and Davenport, which led to 
his being cited before the Court of Star Chamber 
and Bishop Laud, so that eventually he became 
a Congregationalist, and found it convenient, if 
not necessary, to depart hastily for New Eng- 
land. He had formed an acquaintance with a 
number of young gentlemen, who had become 
attached to his ministrations, and they organ- 
ized a company for the settlement of a planta- 
tion on the north shore of Long Island Sound, 
in connection with George Fenwick's company. 
They assembled at London, in May, 1639, and 
sailed together in a vessel of three hundred and 
fifty tons, for New Haven, in company with Gov- 
ernor Fen wick and his newly-married wife, the 
widow of Lord Boteler. While on shipboard 
Whitfield drew up and signed their plantation 
covenant, and in the month of August he and 
his company purchased of the Indians the lands 
comprising the present town of Guilford, em- 
ploying the Rev. John Higginson as an interpre- 
ter. The contract with the Indians was made in 
August, and the deed is dated September 30, 
1639. These papers, v/ith a map, and Whitfield's 
plantation covenant, are preserved in the archives 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 



FirZ-GREENE HALLECK. 247 

Whitfield and his company commenced the 
settlement immediately, and in the organization 
of the church he was constituted one of the 
seven pillars on which it was founded, the others 
being Samuel Disborow, the magistrate, and 
afterward the famous Lord Chancellor, whose 
life is given in Noble's members of the Cromwell 
family ; Rev. William Leete, afterward Gover- 
nor, first of the New Haven colony, and next of 
Connecticut colony ; Rev. John Hoadley, a grad- 
uate of Cambridge, and grandfather of Bishop 
Benjamin Hoadley and Archbishop John Hoad- 
ley of Armagh ; Rev. John Higginson, after- 
ward of Salem, and at one time perhaps the first 
minister of New England ; Rev. John Mepham, 
the friend and relative of Governor Fenwick ; and 
Rev, Jacob Sheafe, afterward the w^ealthiest 
merchant of Boston, Mr. Whitfield returned to 
England in November, 1650, and was succeeded 
by his son-in-law Higginson, who remained in 
charge of the congregation for ten years. The 
Rev. Joseph Eliot, one of Halleck's ancestors, suc- 
ceeded him, occupying the stone house erected 
for Whitfield in 1639. Said the poet as he 
showed us through the substantial structure in 
the summer of 1863, '' This was the first house 
erected in Guilford, and is, I believe, the oldest 
inhabited building now standing in New Eng- 
land." 

The first settlers of Halleck's native town 



248 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

came to this country when the hold of the Dis- 
senters was broken from the mother-land, so 
that they settled the place as an independent 
republic. -They drew up their constitution, 
which is on record in the handwriting of Dis- 
borow, and entirely independent of any other 
power whatever. This beautiful document is 
complete in all its parts, providing for its execu- 
tive, legislative, and judiciary departments, the 
order of its courts, manner of holding its meet- 
ings, provisions for electorship, etc. The same 
spirit of local independence has survived to the 
present day, and characterized the inhabitants 
during all the past, and it appears in the writ- 
ings of the poet, of which a striking instance is 
the fragment ** Connecticut," which is more par- 
ticularly a description of the characteristics of 
Guilford. "Never," says a recent writer, "was 
there a settlement formed of more rigid Puritans 
than that of Guilford, and there is no town in 
New England where the peculiarities of that 
noble race of men have been more faithfully 
transmitted from father to son than in that." 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, the second child and eld- 
est son of Israel and Mary Eliot Halleck, was born 
July 8, 1790, in a pretty cottage on the east side 
of the Guilford Village Green, at that time the 
common burial-place of the town. His ancestors 
were among the earliest of the Pilgrim Fathers 
— not a bad genealogy for an American; and 



FITZ-GREENE IIALLECK. 249 

some literary admixture was in his blood from 
both his paternal and maternal ancestry, he being 
descended from Peter Halleck or Hallock, who 
landed at New Haven in 1640, and with eleven 
other heads of families settled at Southold, on 
the eastern shore of Long Island, and on his 
mother's side from the Rev. John Eliot, the pious 
"apostle to the Indians," who arrived at Boston 
in 1631. The poetclaimed a more ancient descent 
than the conscientious chronicler can assign to 
him, when he said to the writer that "the coun- 
try-seat of his remote ancestors was at Mount 
Halak {vide Joshua xi ; 17, also xii : 7), in Pales- 
tine;" referring his incredulous listener to Dr. 
Robinson, the distinguished traveller, who had 
visited the old homestead, and had assured the 
poet that "it still bore the same name, or some 
one near enough like it to serve the purpose of 
identification." 

The future poet was sent to school when he 
was six years of age ; and when he was seven 
he took part in one of the public exhibitions or 
" quarter days," as they were called in Connec- 
ticut — an honour not usually accorded to lads of 
his tender years. Said a venerable lady who 
was present, and who at the time of our inter- 
view was in her ninety-fifth year, " He was the 
brightest and sweetest-looking boy I ever saw, 
and so intelligent and gentle in his manner, that 
every one loved him." Fitz-Greene was no 



250 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

sooner taught to write than he took to rhyming. 
As one of his school companions remarked, " He 
couldn't help it." In an old writing-book, dated 
1802, on a page opposite to some juvenile verses 
which may be safely said to give no indication 
of the writer's future fame, appears the follow- 
ing title, showing that even at that early age the 
handsome young schoolboy indulged in dreams 
of poetic distinction: "The Poetical Works of 
Fitz-Greene Hallock." 

Two years later, when fourteen years of age, the 
youthful poet changed the spelling of his name 
from Hallock to HaJleck, and having completed 
his studies, by passing through the four depart- 
ments which then existed in New England 
schools, at the age of fifteen entered the store 
of his kinsman Andrew Eliot of Guilford, with 
whom he remained as a clerk for six years, re- 
siding in his family, in accordance with the cus- 
tom of that day. Here he learned to keep ac- 
counts by double-entry, and soon took entire 
charge of the books. They were kept in a correct 
and business-like manner, were well written, for 
even at that early date Halleck wrote a neat and 
dainty hand ; and it is related that the only 
mistake ever discovered in the young clerk's 
bookkeeping at Eliot's was in opening duplicate 
accounts in the Ledger with the same person. 

In the spring of 1808 he made his first visit 
to New York, then a city of less than ninety 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 



thousand inhabitants. He went on business for 
Mr. Eliot, and during his three days' sojourn 
he visited the Park Theatre, at that time under 
the management of Price and Cooper. It was 
on the occasion of tliis his first visit to a thea- 
tre that the poet saw young Oliff the actor, 
afterward introduced by him in two of the 
" Croakers," and also had pointed out by his 
companion the mercliant John Jacob Astor and 
the young Quaker banker Jacob Barker, little 
thinking at the time, that nearly all the busi- 
ness portion of his life would be associated with 
these prominent men. During the summer of 
the same 5^ear Halleck joined the militia, and 
was soon made a sergeant, filling the position to 
the entire satisfaction of his comrades. His ex- 
periences in the Connecticut militia, as well as 
his later campaign with 

" Swartwout's gallant corps, the Iron Grays," 

was a never-failing source of fun with him, both 
in his conversation and in his correspondence. 
During the following winter he opened an even- 
ing-school for instruction in arithmetic, writ- 
ing, and bookkeeping, and by thus adding to 
his limited income, was enabled to indulge his 
passion for the purchase of books. Among his 
earliest and most prized possessions of this char- 
acter were Campbell's poems, a copy of Burns, 
and Addison's " Spectator." 



252 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

In the month of May, 181 1, Halleck left his 
native town to seek after fame and fortune in 
New York, and in June entered the counting- 
room of Jacob Barker, in whose service he re- 
mained for twenty years. In the spring of 1813 
he became acquainted with Joseph Rodman 
Drake, and from a little incident that occurred 
while they were on a sailing excursion, soon after 
their first meeting, the young men became at- 
tached friends, and ever after maintained a 
devoted friendship severed only by death. In 
1819 they formed a literary partnership and pro- 
duced the humorous series of " Croaker" papers. 
Of this series of satirical and quaint chronicles 
of New York life more than half a century ago, 
Halleck, in 1866, said that "they were good- 
natured verses, contributed anonymously to the 
columns of the New York Evening Post, from 
March to Jun«, 1819, and occasionally afterward." 
The writers continued, like the author of 
"Junius," the sole depositaries of their own 
secret, and apparently wished with the minstrel 
in Leyden's "Scenes of Infancy," to 

" Save others' names, but leave their own unsung." 

In the latter part of 1819 Halleck wrote his 
longest poem of " Fanny," an amusing satire on 
the fashions, follies, and public characters of the 
day, which was the perpetual delight of John 
Randolph. The edition was soon exhausted, 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 253 

and a second edition, enlarged by the addition of 
fifty stanzas, appeared early in 1821. Tlie fol- 
lowing year he visited Europe, and in 1827 pub- 
lished anonymously an edition of his poems, 
two of the finest in the collection, " Alnwick Cas- 
tle" and "Burns," having been suggested by 
scenes and incidents of foreign travel. This 
edition also included his spirited lyric of " Marco 
Bozzaris." In 1832 Halleck entered the office of 
John Jacob Astor, with whom he remained until 
1848, when, the millionaire having died and made 
him rich with an annuity of " forty pounds a 
year," the poet retired to his native town, and 
took up his residence with his unmarried sister 
in an ancient house, built in 1786, on ground 
formerly belonging to the Shelleys, ancestors of 
the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. 

In this fine old mansion, where Halleck resided 
for so many years, he wrote the admirable poem 
"Connecticut," and his latest poetical composi- 
tion of '^ Young America," published in 1864. 
These, with a few translations from the French, 
German, and Italian, and a poem that he con- 
tributed to the " Knickerbocker Gallery," are the 
only fruits from his pen after his retirement to 
his native place. The last-mentioned poem, 
gracefully pensive rather than melancholy, was 
pronounced by Prentice, a brother-poet, " the 
most exquisite thing ever written by a man of 
seventy." It certainly closes with several sweet 



254 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

lines, which neither Burns nor Moore could have 
surpassed: 

" I hope thou wilt not banish hence 

These few and fading flowers of mine, 
But let their theme be their defence, 

The love, the joy, and frankincense, 
And fragrance o' Lang Syne." 

When in 1866 a wealthy admirer wrote to the 
poet for a view of his country-seat to be engrav- 
ed for a privately printed edition of "Fanny," 
Halleck, whose limited means did not permit 
him to be the owner of the fine old mansion 
described in this sketch, but merely a tenant, 
and who had too much manliness of character to 
allow any glorification of his poverty, replied, 
perhaps grimly smiling as he wrote: " I am grate- 
fully sensible of the compliment your proposi- 
tion as to the sketch pays me; but you must 
pardon me for begging that it may not be carried 
into effect; for although born here in Connecti- 
cut, where, as Lord Byron says of England, ' men 
are proud to be,' I shall never cease to ' hail,' as 
the sailors say, from your good city of New 
York, of which a residence of more than fifty 
years made me a citizen. There I always con- 
sidered myself at home, and elsewhere but a 
visitor. If, therefore, you wish to embellish my 
poem with a view of my country-seat (it was 
literally mine for every summer Sunday for 



i 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 255 

years), let it be taken from the top of Weehawk 
Hill, overlooking New York, to whose scenes and 
associations the poem is almost exclusively de- 
voted." ' 

A short time before the poet's death, he 
changed his residence to a smaller house near 
the house facing the Green, in which he had 
spent so many years, the owner wishing to con- 
vert the old mansion into an inn, for which pur- 
pose it is now used. In the month of August of 
that year we spent a few days at Guilford with 
the poet. He was then in excellent health, and 
entertained us with much pleasant gossip about 
his native town and State. He also talked of her 
numerous poets — Barlow, Hopkins, Humphreys, 
and Trumbull, all of wiiom except Hopkins he 
had seen ; and his friends Hillhouse, Pierpont, 
Percival, Brainard, Sigourney, Prentice, and 
George Hill (like himself, a native of Guilford) 
among the modern bards of Connecticut. 

In October he arrived in New York on his last 
visit, very unfortunately adding to a severe cold 
which he had taken before leaving Guilford. 
He remained for a week, but was too unwell to 
accept any invitations, and only left his hotel 
twice, to call upon his physician, and for a short 
stroll on a sunny afternoon with the writer. 
" If we never meet again, come and see me laid 
under the sod of my native village," were the sad 
and prophetic words with which we parted on 



256 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the morning of his last day's sojourn in New York. 
He stopped to rest for a few hours at New Haven, 
and reached Guilford the same evening, " weak as 
a broken wave." He lingered for a few weeks, 
and passed away peacefully, without a moan or a 
struggle, with his attached sister by his side, on 
Tuesday evening, November 19, 1867. Sum- 
moned to Guilford by the poet's sister,* I per- 
formed the melancholy duty of attending my 
cherished friend's funeral on the following Fri- 
day, and saw him laid by the side of his father's 
grave in the cemetery of his native town: 

" To me, the humblest of the mourning band, 

Who knew the bard through many a changeful year. 

It was a proud, sad privilege to stand 
Beside his grave, and shed a parting tear. 

Six lustres had he been my friend: 

Be that my plea when I suspend 
This all unworthy wreath on such a poet's bier," 



* Miss Halleck died April 21, 1870. She was the last of 
her family, and now sleeps by the side of her gifted brother. 
The inscription on the Halleck monument records her name, 
and the years of her birth and death: "Maria Halleck, 
1788-1870." There is nothing more beautiful in literary 
biography than the devoted attachment that ever existed 
between the poet and his sister — an attachment and devotion 
not surpassed by that existing between Charles and Mary 
Lamb. They were constant correspondents while the poet 
resided in New York, and when he left the great city in 1849, 
it was to return to his native place, and to reside with his 
sister until they were separated by death. 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 



257 



The eightieth anniversary of Halleck's birth 
was an auspicious day. Summer gave her most 
tempered sunshine, her sweetest airs, for the 
formal dedication, with appropriate honours, of 
the first monument ever erected in honour of an 
American poet. The "gray rocks" of Connecti- 
cut grew softer in the mellow light ; freshest 
odours of new-mown hay were in the air, and de- 
lightful breezes from the Sound turned the silver 
lining of the willow-leaves and shook the tassels 
of the blossoming chestnuts. The rough little 
State never seemed so beautiful to those who 
followed her coast on their way to participate in 
the honours rendered to one of her best-known 
and best-beloved sons. In the presence of some 
three thousand friends and neighbours, including 
the poet's venerable sister and many old associ- 
ates from New York who proved faithful to his 
memory, the ceremonies took place which dedi- 
cated the imposing granite obelisk erected in his 
native town in honour of Fitz-Greene Halleck, by 
his brothers of the literary guild, Bryant, Long- 
fellow, Whittier, and many other of the most 
eminent men of the country. A portion of 
the attractive programme was the delivery by 
Bayard Taylor of an appreciative and eloquent 
address, and the reading by Halleck's biographer 
of the following lyric written for the occasion by 
Oliver Wendell Holmes : 



258 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

" Say not the poet dies, 
Though in the dust he lies ! 
He cannot forfeit his melodious breath 
Unsphered by envious Death ! 
Life drops the voiceless myriads from its roll ; 
Their fate he cannot share, 
Who, in the enchanted air. 
Sweet with the lingering strains that echo stole, 
Has left his dearer self, the music of his soul ! 

" We o'er his turf may raise 
Our notes of feeble praise. 
And carve with pious care for after-eyes 
The stone with ' Here he lies ; ' 
He for himself has built a nobler shrine. 
Whose walls of stately rhyme 
Roll back the tides of time, 
While o'er their gates the gleaming tablets shine 
That wear his name, inwrought with many a golden line ! 

" Call not our poet dead, 
Though on his turf we tread ! 
Green is the wreath their brows so long have worn — 

The minstrels of the morn. 
Who, while the orient burned with new-born flame, 
Caught that celestial fire 
And struck a Nation's lyre ! 
These taught the western winds the poet's name ; 
Theirs the first opening buds, the maiden flowers of fame ! 

" Count not our poet dead ! 

The stars shall watch his bed. 
The rose of June its fragrant life renew 

His blushing mound to strew. 
And all the tuneful throats of summer swell 

With trills as crystal clear 

As when he wooed the ear 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 259 

Of the young muse' that haunts each wooded dell 
With songs of that ' rough land ' he loved so long and well ! 

" He sleeps ; he cannot die ! 
As evening's long-drawn sigh, 
Lifting the rose-leaves on his peaceful mound, 

Spreads all their sweets around, 
So, laden with his song, the breezes blow 
From where the rustling sedge 
Frets our rude ocean's edge. 
To the smooth sea beyond the peaks of snow. 
His soul the air enshrines, and leaves but dust below ! " 

Another honour was paid to Hallecl^'s memor}' 
by the erection in the Central Park. New York, 
of a full-length bronze statue, the first set up in 
the New World to a poet. It was unveiled in 
May, 1877, by the President of the United States, 
who with his Cabinet, the General of the Army, 
and many other eminent citizens, including the 
poets Bryant, Boker, and Ba3'ard Taylor, were e's^ 
corted from the writer's residence to the Central 
Park b}^ the Seventh Regiment. Appropriate 
addresses were delivered b)' the venerable Bryant 
and William Allen Butler, and a spirited poem 
written for the occasion by Whittier was in his 
unavoidable absence read by Halleck's biogra- 
pher in the presence of an audience of fifty thou- 
sand people. In December, 1878, a sumptuously 
printed " Memorial of Fitz-Greene Halleck," 
edited by Evert A. Duyckinck and the present 
writer, was issued by the Appletons. This ele- 



26o BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

gant quarto was limited to one hundred copies, 
and contains the addresses and poems delivered 
at the monument and statue celebrations, to- 
gether with nine portraits of Halleck, and many- 
other steel engravings, including Bryant, Butler, 
Bayard Taylor, Duyckinck, Dr. Holmes, Whittier, 
and views of Alnwick Castle, Hotspur and his 
Bride, a noble Landscape by Durand, and the 
"Young Mother," by Huntington. 

It will be of interest here to record some ex- 
pressions of friendly and critical appreciation of 
Halleck from one of his contemporaries, who has 
been widely known as a voluminous and favour- 
ite writer of prose and verse — William Gilmore 
Simms of South Carolina. I frequently met Mr. 
Simms at the houses of New York friends, and in 
my father's residence. He was a voluble talker 
and a good letter-writer. There was at the period 
of my first meeting with Mr. Simms, about 1850, 
something in his strong, earnest, clean-shaven 
face, blue eye, and stalwart figure singularly- 
suggestive of Christopher North. When, some 
sixteen or seventeen years later, I met him for 
the last time under a friend's roof on the banks 
of the Hudson, he was much changed in appear- 
ance and in spirits — much embittered by his 
losses, and by the result of the war. Before it 
came, I had heard from his lips these extravagant 
words: "If it comes to blows between the North 
and the South, we will crush you [the North] as 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 26 1 

I would crush an ^%%,'' holding up his clenched 
hand as if in the act of performing that feat. It 
must be admitted that few men not in politics 
did more to bring on hostilities between the two 
sections than William Gilmore Simms, and few 
men suffered more from them. 

Writing to the author from his residence of 
"Woodlands," in 1868, Mr, Simms says: 

" Though I had the pleasure to make the acquaint- 
ance of Halleck some thirty years ago, I do not re- 
member that any correspondence passed between us. 
We met occasionally during my summer visits annu- 
ally to the North, and I always found him a pleasant 
companion, genial and sparkling with humour, quick at 
repartee, and inclining to the sarcastic when speaking 
of pretension and pretenders. There were parties any 
reference to whom always provoked him to scornful 
or cynical remarks. Poetasters, of whom New York 
always had its large proportion, were discussed with a 
quiet contempt and dismissed with some biting sar- 
casm. I remember that Halleck seemed to feel a spe- 
cial dislike to publishers, of very few of whom did he 
entertain a favourable opinion. When the copyright 
law (international) was a subject of first discus- 
sion, I remember well the biting scorn with which 
he expressed himself in reference to the action of the 
members of a certain publishing house, some of whom 
had on a previous occasion avowed themselves friendly 
to the proposed bill of international copyright ; and 
one of the company assumed from this, that, for 
the sake of mere consistency, the house would not 
oppose it. ' Consistency ! ' said Halleck, with a scorn- 



262 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ful laugh; ' these fellows are consistent in nothing but 
pursuit of gain. They have no dread of inconsist- 
ency, having long since survived all sense of shame.' 

" With the few whom Fitz-Greene Halleck liked, and 
with whom he associated on equal terms, he was genial, 
graceful, never wanton of speech, and always full of 
chat and pleasant humour; apt always and prompt at 
reply, with that spirit of repartee and easy wit which 
makes so much of the charm and spirit of the ' Croaker ' 
Epistles. His geniality with such a circle was always 
active, and he relished nothing better than a snug and 
select party, 'fit though few.' He was both socially 
and politically a natural aristocrat, and did not cheapen 
himself by any too easy entrance into society. He 
required to respect men mentally before associating 
with them, and seemed to me to revolt from all asso- 
ciations with trade, in spite of all his life-long con- 
nection with it — and perhaps because of that con- 
nection. I may add that he seemed very careless of 
authorship, and, though he did not undervalue the 
credit which he himself had derived from it, he made 
no ambitious or feverish struggles after fame or public 
favour. He was above all meanness, and never forgot 
the gentlemen in the poet. You will note that, in his 
satire, the weapon he uses is the small sword, not the 
bludgeon. It is a polished blade, and, however mortal 
the thrust, it did not mangle the victim. The grace 
and dexterity of his satire were habitual to him in soci- 
ety, and the wit and humour of his ordinary conversa- 
tion are admirably illustrated by his satirical poetry, 
such as ' Fanny' and the ' Croakers.' That he wrote 
too little is a subject of popular complaint ; had he 
esteemed the popular judgement, he would probably 



FITZ GREENE HALLECK. 263 

have shown himself more voluminous. But for this, 
as I have every reason to think, he entertained a most 
sovereign contempt, which was even extended some- 
what to those who showed themselves more solicitous 
of popular favour, especially the class of politicians." 

The following series of Halleck's unpublished 
letters written to the late Samuel Ward of 
New York (1810-1884) were sent to me by that 
well-known, popular, and accomplished gentle- 
man, the intimate friend of Irving, Halleck, 
Longfellow, and other men of letters on both 
sides of the Atlantic, but were not received in 
season to be used in the writer's Life of Fitz- 
Greene Halleck, and now appear in print for the 
first time: 

Guilford, Conn., July 14, 1862. 

My dear Sir : I was made very glad by and grate- 
ful for your kind gift. That my gladness should blend 
itself with the grief your beautiful lines so eloquently 
express, is, I hope, pardonable as a necessity of the 
time. Almost every letter I receive now comes to me 
with crape on its left arm. 

But since it seems certain that your young Hero by 
to-day's account is still living, not only in Rhyme but 
in Reality, I look upon your letter with (his captivity 
excepted) unmingled pleasure. Long may he wait for 
the apotheosis which your verses and his valour have 
assured to him. Would that all epitaphs upon our 
brave men, distinguished on fields of battle hereafter, 
could be indefinitely postponed. 

In your next please kindly tell me of the where- 



264 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

aboutsof our accomplished acquaintance Mr. Hurlburt, 
Since I read in some anti-Southern paper that, like a 
certain gentleman of old, he had gone "down from 
Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves," I have 
heard nothing of him. 

Guilford, Conn., August 18, 1862. 

A wound in my best finger received in a late battle, 
not with a foe, but with a fish-hook, has thus long 
prevented me from legibly answering your last letter. 

The " Ressurrexit," happy in its subject, is equally 
happily conceived and ended. The fourth stanza, so 
gentlemanly in thought and expression, particularly 
delights me. " La chocollettere" (patois, I presume, 
for "pretty waiter-girl," legislatively forbidden fruit) 
I have smiled upon before (the poem I mean, not the 
lady) on its stem in the Albion. I am glad you have 
selected that excellent paper for your "garden of 
posies." It may be that my admiration for the personal 
character of the editor extends itself involuntarily to 
everything that he does, but I can fancy nothing of its 
kind better conducted than the Albion. I look for- 
ward to it weekly, in the certainty of being made men- 
tally and morally wiser and wealthier by its perusal. 

The two London papers you have sent me were very 
welcome indeed ; and were it not for my fear of over- 
tasking your good-nature and my inability to repay you 
in ki7id, I should hasten to accept your courteous offer 
of continuing to send me similar good gifts. The 
greatest privation I feel here in the country is that of 
losing the run of the new publications, etc., from 
abroad; and I am famishing for the want of the nur- 
ture which I used of old to gather, bee-like, from book- 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 265 

sellers' counters, and, bee-like, hive up for future 
profit and pleasure. 

I have shared with you in the gladness of reading our 
friend Pierre Irving's first volume, he having kindly pre- 
sented me with it. Apart from his uncle's writings, one 
of the best things in the book is Mrs. Cooper's* letter, 
page 188. Is it not perfect.-* — and moreover a perfect 
woman } No man could have written such a letter — 
not even Washington Irving. I had the honour of 
corresponding with Mrs. Cooper in her later years, and 
value her letters as treasures. 

Promising to refund the amount of your postage- 
stamp advances, past, present, and to come, as soon as 
the war is over, I beg you to believe me, my dear sir, 
etc. 

Guilford, Conn., August 25, 1862. 

You are right : it is the fifth stanza to which I give 
preference. To prevent further mistakes, allow me the 
pleasure of copying it: 

"Yet deem not that my heart retracts 
The praise ne'er meant to dim the eye 
Of one whose future words and acts 
Shall verify his Eulogy." 

How well it sounds ! There is in it none of the self- 
imported Germanisms your modesty apprehends. 

When I find in the lines of your young poets of the 
day any fancied imperfection, I do not ascribe them, 
as you appear to do, to foreign idioms unconsciously 
adopted, but to the ill-luck of having taken Tennyson 
and Mrs. Browning as models in place of Spenser and 



Mrs. Thomas A. Cooper, nde Mary Fairlie. 



266 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Milton. Coleridge's " Wallenstein," from the German 
of Schiller, is a specimen of the very best English ; and 
Campbell before he wrote his best poems had visited 
Germany, and was an excellent German scholar. My 
dislike to German literature is confined to the 
" Faust" of Goethe — the worst book, in the strongest 
sense of the word worst, that I have ever read through. 
How any decent publisher, after reading the two last 
lines on page 165 in Mr. Brook's translation, can offer it 
for sale to any Christian man or any respectable woman 
astonishes me ; and how the Albion, so dear to me for 
its perfectly good taste, could copy the song of the 
"Love-sick Rat," so nauseating, polluting pages 102 
and 103, is a still greater wonder. Perhaps some 
charm of style in the original, with which I am but 
partially acquainted, may hallow these impurities, 
but I cannot deem it possible, even after reading Rous- 
seau's " Confessions." 

To return to a pleasanter subject : I am thankful, 
from day to day, the more for your continued kindness 
in sending me papers. The books you name I should 
hasten to read were I in town, but I do not deem any 
of them worth the trouble it would give you to for- 
ward such "heavy-weights." Pray limit your good 
offices to sending me magazines and works of an easily 
portable and postageable nature, unless you produce 
a volume of your own. When you do, please let it 
come by express, if not by telegraph, in all haste. 

I am happy to learn from your postscript that our 
friend Mr. Van Buren* is fast recovering his health. 
Please present to him my very best regards, and beg 



The late John Van Buren. 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 267 

him to avoid hereafter the risk he ran (to quote his own 
pleasant words) of " taking cold," by preaching politics 
in the Park "while its gates were accidentally left 
open," on one of his eloquently oratorical evenings. 

Have you met with the enclosed ? * Is not the para- 
graph I have marked, the imaginary standing at St. 
Peter's Gate, a literary curiosity, and, moreover, a 
bright idea?. . . 



* The subjoined letter, which was veritably addressed by 
a lady of Illinois to her husband in this city, does too much 
credit to the self-sacrificing patriotism of our Northern 
women to be withheld from publication: 

" , August, 1862. 

" My dear Husband : When I received your letter I 
blushed scarlet red — blushed from my heart out — at the weak 
— aye, cowardly — spirit it betrayed. You say you have been 
sorely troubled lately on the account of drafting men for the 
war in New York — that you had your ' exemption-papers ' 
all made out, etc., and that it will be impossible to procure 
a ' substitute.' Now, for shame ! Is there not a drop of 
your grandfather's blood in your veins, who fought at Bun- 
ker Hill when the blood of freemen flowed shoe-latchet 
deep ? Does not the love you bear me and the children 
make your love of home and country more ? You — six feet 
high, strong, vigorous, and without a single ailment in limb 
or member, and withal a good shot, and native-born — you 
ask for exemption! For shame! Great Heaven, 'is thy 
servant a dog, that he should do this thing?' I should live 
but to blush when the name of ' patriot ' was spoken, and 
the heart of our little son would never throb with pride, his 
eyes sparkle with holy fire, nor his lips say ' My father was 
there too,' when in after-years you or I shall recount the 
scenes of the war of 1861-62. And then, at the judgement. 



268 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Guilford, Conn., January 3, 1863. 

I have your " Minstrel's Malison," like Pyramus and 

Thisbe, a specimen of merry, "tragical mirth," and a 

further proof of your design to run, as one of your 

brother-poets says, "through each mood of the Lyre 



when you shall stand with that great host of brave men who 
have given their lives for freedom's sake — all you can do 
will be to point to your ' substitute,^ ox show -^oxxx exemp- 
tion-papers. But will they be accepted there? 

" Not only are you recreant to country and Constitution, 
but to the ' higher law ' on which all good and wise con- 
stitutions are constructed, when you say you do not believe 
God has anything to do with the political troubles of any 
country, but, with Napoleon, that ' He is on the side of the 
heaviest artillery.' Is it possible that a man, born and 
bred in this land of education and Gospel can utter such an 
infidel sentiment as that ? What has been the trouble of any 
nation or people, if not political ? If such a catastrophe as 
is ours — the direst that can befall the mass of humanity, 
and which is felt the world around — means nothing, surely 
He takes little heed of the affairs of men. Can you think 
that He who marks "the sparrow's fall "will ^ven permit 
men — living men — with love of Liberty on one side and love 
of Slavery on the other — every one of whom is loved by 
some heart, to meet, fight, bleed, fall, and die by thousands 
— tens, hundreds of thousands — without meaning something 
by it? Politics indeed ! What did it mean in the Revolu- 
tion — what does it mean now? Run the word out : does it 
not mean government, laws, equity, justice, rectitude, home, 
affection ? And if God is not in these, where in all the world 
is He? ' He that is not for me is against me :' so if there 
is a great moral question involved in this struggle, either 
one side or the other must be right ! — and if we are right, 
why not fight to uphold our Government and all its blessed 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 269 

and be master of them all." It is Juvenal now who, in 
power of musical invective, must look to his laurels, 
and Samuel Butler must laugh to see his weapon of 
wit held " in terrorem " by another Samuel over an- 
other Butler. 
Your lines delight my anti-Lincoln neighbours, to 



institutions ? And if they are right, surely the odds are 
against them — they need help. Choose you on which side 
you will serve. 

" Here men are rushing to the standard of liberty by hun- 
dreds ; ministers, merchants, lawyers, mechanics, farmers, 
all. Poor , who h is left his lucrative office in Wash- 
ington, is dying to go, but cannot be accepted, on account 
of his poor health. And just think of my brave brother 
, how he went at the very first tap o' the drum, will- 
ingly, gladly giving up all — how he has been disabled by 
sickness and bal]; yet his great warm heart presses upon 
his stomach and keeps it full all the time — warms his feet, 
and the ground whereon he sleeps. And God will keep 
him ! 

" Do not trouble yourself about pecuniary matters if you 
wish to go, for I am getting well every day, and in case of 
extremity there will be some way provided — I can teach or 
paint, and will be better off than one half the wives whose 
husbands go. 

" How I should miss you, or live without you, you can 
imagine as well as I. Surely no wife appreciates the strong, 
willing arm, the gentle, loving words, the ten thousand acts 
of love and kindness more than I do ; but close around my 
heart, where I carry my darlings, is my love of country and 
oi freedom; and if you come not back, oh let me know — 
my Saviour strengthening me — that you fell with the Banner 
of the Cross above your head, and over your heart the 
Stars and Stripes. 

" May God help us both !" 



270 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

whom I have lent them. As a lover of fair-play I have 
tried to induce them to read Butler's " Farewell," but in 
vain. A party-man like Irving's Dutch Justice always 
refuses to be bothered by hearing both sides. For my 
part, Butler is one of my heroes — of which this deplora- 
ble war has produced at least four, viz., Jefferson Davis, 
General Butler, John Van Buren,and Captain Rynders. 
The two former "Types of Mankind," to borrow an 
ethnological expression, are, in administrative ability, of 
the bull-dog species, tenacious of tooth in discharge of 
what they deem or pretend to deem Duty ; the two lat- 
ter blend, in upsetting and creating what Mr. Glad- 
stone calls " a Nation," the eloquent wisdom of the 
Serpent with the gentle cooing of the Dove. 

Guilford, Conn., February 2, 1863. 
My dear Sir : Do not be frightenjed. In my last 

" I poured out all my soul as plain 
As downright Shippen or as old Montaigne," 

and have no ideas left for future long letters. 

In saying that this note is but a passing cloud over 
the sunshine of my silence, I steal an idea from the Rev. 
Sidney Smith. Have you seen the inclosed .'' * Does 



* On the 4th of August Napoleon writes to Admiral Decres 
from the camp of Boulogne : 

" I send you back the letter of M. Beurmonville [then am- 
bassador at Madrid]. The news relative to Nelson seems 
to me doubtful. What the devil could he do in the Medi- 
'terranean? They must then have twenty ships-of-the-line ? 
They little know what is to fall about their ears. All here 
is in good train; and assuredly, if we are master of the 



FirZ-GREENE HALLECK. 2*] \ 

not the "idee Napoleenne" of the one remind you of 
the " Fuit Ilium"? Is there a parliamentary scene in 
Hansard equal to that in the other? And shall we 
have such scenes and such statesmen under our coming 
monarchy ? 

I am more and more pleased with the beautiful vig- 
nette lines. Like the cluster of grapes by the brook 
Eshcol, they invitingly lure the reader on towards the 
vintage of the " promised land." This last idea I steal 
from the Pentateuch, now made a fashionable theme by 
Bishop Colenso— the Tom Paine of the Prelacy. 

Unveiling, womanlike, in my postscript the real pur- 
pose of this letter, I am, 

My dear sir, etc. 

P. S. — How soon does the volume appear ? 

Guilford, Conn., February 9, 1863. 

I am made very glad by your good long letter and 
its companions the papers, and particularly by the 
"Monitor," which I cannot praise too highly. If you 
can excel it or continue to equal it I will insure you, 
for a nominal premium, what Cowley calls "the ever- 
lasting life of song." 

I wish the beating you have, Judy-like, given to poor 
Ptmch were transferred to his prompters behind the 
curtain. If they have any pity for their puppet or any 
pluck for a fight, they will sling a nest of hornets 
about your ears. 

With regard to the word objected to by our friend 

Channel for twelve hours, it is all over with England" — 
\r Angleter7'e a vecii\. 
(The other extract alluded to is missing. — Author.) 



272 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Longfellow, is it its grammar that "grates him"? I 
am myself no "scollard," but I believe that though, as 
a general rule, " hood " is preceded by a noun, like boy- 
hood, manhood, etc., yet hardihood and other words, 
where adjectives precede it, exist in the language. 
For my part, " princelihood " has an old English Chau- 
cer-like sound til at pleases me, and were I you I would 
retain it. At worst,. it will form a nice Tub for the 
whales of criticism to spend their strength in chasing. 

Do not, I pray you, alter tlie title of the Book. I 
cannot fancy better. It is associated in my mind with 
my favourite rose, worth to my taste a whole garden of 
others, the " wayside" rose, sometimes called the sweet- 
briar, which in its single-leafed simplicity makes beauti- 
ful the summer wood-paths here in my neighbourhood, 
and is to the imagination a moral emblem in miniature 
of the single-leafed sincerity of girlhood before the 
coming shadow of love has closed her lips. 

There, now ! Has not the reading of your " Monitor" 
made even me capable of saying " lo anche son pit- 
tore" ? 

Did you read in one of the papers you sent me the 
very amusing" letter about changing names ? If not, I 
will inclose it to you in my next. It is a literary 
curiosity, and should be preserved. 

Will you pardon me for asking, Do you receive 
French papers? If you do, will you, when you have 
read them, and when 

" You have brushed from their grape its soft blue. 
From their rosebud have shaken its tremulous dew" 

(as Lord Byron's moral Muse says of the sins of waltz- 
ing), siend them to me? 



FITZGREENE HALLECK. 2/3 

Guilford, Conn., March 2, 1863. 

The lines inclosed in 3'our kind letter of the 22d 
ult. prove that I was right in saying that you are bent 
upon mastering "every mood of the lyre," for your 
"Old Rope" is in the style of Dibdin's "Tom Tough" 
refined for the Admiral's table and the Chaplain's text. 
Since you insist upon my becoming what you call a 
critically " true friend," and what Sir Fretful Plagiary 
called " a damned good-natured one," I proceed to 
treat it with that "courage and candour" which Jeffrey 
defined to be the meaning of the word "criticism," as 
practised by the Ediiibw-gJi Review. 

I begin, therefore, by asking, Could not the word 
" folks" in stanza 5 be exchanged for a more sailor-like 
one ? In stanza 6 I dislike " don't" ; would not " ne'er" 
do better? In stanza 7 I don't like "a bit of prayer." 
To me it sounds irreverent ; and moreover the word 
"bit" is used "ad nauseam" of late by John Ruskin 
and his set when praising (to quote from my brother 
Croa.ker Joe Drake) "Titians of a Table-cloth and 
Guidos of a pair of Breeches." Would not "breathed 
a breath of prayer" better express your idea? You 
have Lord Byron's authority : " Even the forest-leaves 
seemed stirred with prayer." 

The other "bits" inclosed will also, I think, amuse 
you as specimens of the liberty taken by our editors 
with that much-puffed " Liberty of the Press," which 
I have the honour of agreeing with Louis Napoleon in 
considering a public nuisance. Pray whose " subjuga- 
tion" does Lord Russell fear? That of the South or 
North? And is the difference between the two reports 
of his speech an accident or a purpose ? The best fun 
of the thing is that his lordship's remarks apply 



274 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

equally well or ill to the one side or the other of this 
our deplorable war. 

While on this subject will you pardon a few egotis- 
tical words ? I have in my time lived in England, and 
have learned to like England dearly. I consider her 
social Life (provided you have ;^2oooa year and up- 
wards) the perfection of social Life, and her form of 
government the best the world has known. But with 
special reference to America and things American, I 
feel myself compelled to admit that there is much 
truth in the remark of the Prince de Kaunitz at the 
Congress of Vienna in 1815, " Ce qiiil y a de phis 
extraordinaire du monde, — cest la quantite que les An- 
glais ne savent pas." 

Guilford, March 10, 1863. 

I am quite proud to find that my random sugges- 
tions as to the " Old Rope" meet your approval. Your 
word " sobbed " is a happy idea — particularly in con- 
nection with the following extract from the Saturday 
Review's notice of the death of the Marquis of Lans- 
downe, under date of the 7th ult., received from you 
yesterday, which I hasten to copy. Among his pictures 
is a painting by Newton from the " Vicar of Wake- 
field," of "Olivia brought back to her house," wherein 
she is represented with her face hidden in her father's 
bosom. " It is not very difficult" (remarked a carping 
critic) "to paint a figure without the face." " But it is 
very difficult," retorted Constable, "to paint a sob. 
What Lord Lansdowne bought was the sob." 

I unconsciously filled up my last letter-pages with- 
out leaving room to ask you a question about The 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 275 

Book. Do you intend placing your name on the title- 
page ? If yea, will not the simple " Poems by S. W." be 
the appropriate name for the volume ? If the reader 
of the title-page asks, " What are poems ?" or " What is 
poetry ?" you (recollecting the epitaph on Sir Chris- 
topher Wren in St. Paul's, " If you seek his monument, 
look around you") can safely reply, " Read on and you 
will know." 

Reserving for my next, remarks suggested by your 
recent welcome letter, I beg you, after accepting my 
thanks for your kind promises as to the French papers, 
to present my grateful compliments to our friend Mr. 
Hurlburt, in acknowledgment of his courteous offer to 
reserve from his treasures of a like kind his best speci- 
mens for my perusal. 

Guilford, Conn., June 6, 1863. 

Although still uncertain when or where this note 
may hit you, now that you are on the wing, and, with 
the ubiquitous Irishman of Sir Boyle Roche, in two or 
more places at once, like a bird, I can conscientiously 
no longer delay my acknowledgments of the receipt of 
your welcome letters, nor the expression of my wish 
that you sliould be in no hurry in carrying into effect 
your very kind offer of the translations. Idler as I am, 
I am but too glad to find, in my absence from the 
requisite libraries, etc., a good and gratifying excuse 
for my continued idleness. 

As our distinguished friend Mr. Edward Everett, 
from personal observation of the progress of the stars 
between midnight and morning, while seated in a rail- 
road car with doors and windows closed, and going at 
the rate of forty odd miles an hour, was able to give us 



276 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

one of his best specimens of eloquent prose, allow me 
to hope that you have recently, while journeying at a 
similar time and in a similar position, woven for us one 
of your best specimens of eloquent verse, and set it 
most appropriately and artistically " to the music of 
the spheres." 

Guilford, Conn., March 7, 1865. 

My best thanks for your good long letter and for 
The World, I am much amused by your anxiety 
to puzzle the critics (whose delight it is to " cloud 
young Genius brightening into day"), by setting them 
to work at finding those " needles in a haystack," 
the imaginary "defects" in the new volume; and I am 
still more amused by my very good friend Mrs. Howe's 
sisterly advice, that you should " keep better company" 
than that of the "Lamplighter," whom you so honour 
in your preface and inscriptions. As to four of us, I 
can well understand that her love of country prompts 
her to warn you against Mr. Barlow and Charles 
O'Conor, the two secessionists, and her love of the good 
poets, against the two sham ones, Tennyson and myself. 
The others, including our exemplary Mr. Cogswell,* I 
recommend to her mercy. 

The wiseacre of the Commonwealth, whose stereo- 
typed phrase you quote, is evidently one of a race 
mentioned i» a letter of Sterne's : " On our way we 
passed a group of jackasses browsing by the roadside. 
Oh, how they viewed and r,?viewed us !" " Poverty of 
thought !" forsooth ! If I am inclined to find fault, I 



* Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, the first Superintendent of the 
Astor Library, New York. 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 2'J'J 

should accuse your poetry of too great wealth of 
thought, an embarras de richesses, an overflow of know- 
ledge suggesting themes for thought, and a knowledge 
of foreign idioms interfering occasionally with our 
home-taught English. The line on page i6, for in- 
stance, "Stands the clock," etc., is in the music of the 
" Stabat Mater" of Rossini and its Latin verse, rather 
than in ours ; and when I again have the pleasure of 
conversing with you, I can point out many others of a 
similar foreign origin, testifying to the lore and learn- 
ing of a mind filled to the brim from foreign fountains 
inaccessible to the jackasses aforesaid. 

As to my opinion of the alterations suggested by 
Mr. Longfellow, for which you ask, I can only say that, 
were your work still in manuscript, they might be fit 
subjects for argument " pro or con ;" but now that it is 
in print, I would not give them an anxious thought. 

Guilford, Conn., May 17, 1865. 

You will, I doubt not, say that I am savagely criti- 
cal towards your favourite this morning, but I write for 
your eyes alone, not for the public; and after all, "my 
bark," dog as I am " for the nonce," is " worse than my 
bite," for I know and feel that the Laureate is a poet 
of the very highest order, and a better judge of poeti- 
cal blemishes and beauties than I can be ; and although, 
like the late Mr. Cobden, my present preferences are in 
favour of Milton and Pope, and Burns and Byron, I 
may live to join you in deriving as much delight from 
him as heretofore I have derived from the noblest of 
his predecessors. In the meantime and "^;/ revanche," 
any and all of my rhymes are at your service for a simi- 
lar harrowing-. As Sir Peter Teazle savs in the School 



2/8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

for Scandal, " I leave my character," in bidding you 
adieu, " behind me." 

In the hope of hearing again from you soon, and 
of being assured that you are well, and, thanks to the 
sale of your tenth edition, wealthy, I am my dear sir, etc. 

Guilford, Conn., June 3, 1865. 

My dear Sir: Your princely remittance of the Na- 
"■poleon volume has largely increased the balance to 
your credit in my memory's books. Now that our na- 
tional debt is about to be paid off, I am anxious to pay 
off mine due you — fast becoming a like three thousand 
millions. Please draw on me soon and often, accord- 
ingly. 

Let me add my thanks for the little Wasp, the Em- 
peror's antagonist, and for the Spectator. The latter I 
have forwarded as requested. 

Mr. Seba Smith, alluded to in the Spectator, was the 
creator of the first "Jack Downing," a droll narrator of 
droll stories in the Yankee dialect. Our wise and witty 
friend Charles Augustus Davis took him under his 
protection, made him a major in the Downingville 
Militia, and a leading politician, unequalled in fun if 
not in fame. I doubt the truth of the statement as to 
General Jackson's unforgiveness of the letters. I have, 
on the contrary, always understood that the old hero 
had the good sense to "laugh consumedly," as Scrub 
says in the Beaux Stratagem, at their allusions to him. 
Others satirized by them were, I remember, exceed- 
ingly exasperated and annoyed when some of their 
arrows hit their aim. When you see Davis, please re- 
fer him, with my best regards, to the article in ques- 
tion. He cannot but be gratified to learn that his fame 



FirZ-GREENE HALLECK. 279 

is still so bright on the other side of the Atlantic, and 
his power to wield the weapon " Ridicule" so estimated 
there — the weapon that Pope, your brother- poet 
wielded so proudly when he said, 

" Yes, I am proud — I must be proud to see 
Men not afraid of God afraid of me; 
Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, 
But touched and scourged by Ridicule alone." 

You once told me that you greatly admired Tenny- 
son's " Brook :" please say how you like the inclosed.* 
Who wins ? The Laureate or the Lady-f" 

The following unpublished lines, entitled 
"The Tear," written by Halleck some time pre- 
vious to 1810, " the flight of a noble bird for the 
first time essaying his wings," will perhaps, as a 
Spring-time memorial of its author, be deemed 
not unworthy of preservation in these pages : 

" On beds of snow the moonbeam slept, 
And chilly was the midnight gloom, 
Where by the damp grave Mary wept : — 
Sweet maid ! it was her lover's tomb. 

" A warm tear gush'd, the Wint'ry air 
Congeal'd it as it fiow'd away : 
All night it lay an ice-drop there, 
At morn it glitter'd in the ray. 

"The angel wandering from his sphere. 

Who saw this bright, this frozen gem, ! 

To devv-ey'd Pity brought the tear 
And placed it in her diadem." 



* " The Brook that Runs into the Sea," by Lucy Larcom 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 

1795-1820. 

Joseph Rodman Drake, the author of *' The 
Culprit Fay," that most exquisite and original 
American poem, was born in the city of New 
York August 7, 1795, the year that gave birth 
to the eccentric poet Percival, and the accom- 
plished author of " Swallow Barn" and " Horse- 
shoe Robinson." His ancestors were among 
the earliest of the Pilgrim Fathers — an excellent 
genealogy for the American who celebrated in 
patriotic song the glory of the starry " flag of 
the free." John Drake of Devonshire — a kins- 
man of Sir Francis, the redoubtable rover of 
the seas— a member of the Council of Plymouth, 
and one of the original company established by 
Queen Elizabeth's successor to the English 
crown for settling New England, came to Boston 
in the summer of 1630, accompanied by several 
sons, and soon after settled at East Chester, in 
the State of New York, where the family ac- 
quired a large. estate, bounded on one side by 
the beautiful Bronx, whose attractions were 
described by their gifted descendant. Jonathan 
Drake, the poet's father, and a lineal descendant 



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JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE 28 1 

of the member of the Plymouth company, was a 
colonel in the Revolutionary army, who, after 
the war, married Miss Hannah Lawrence, the 
daughter of Effingham Lawrence of Flushing, 
a highly respectable Long Island family, with as 
ancient an American ancestry as the Drakes. 

The poet was an only son, one of four children, 
who, early bereaved of their parents, were sub- 
jected to many of the pains and privations inci- 
dent to poverty and the loss of their natural pro- 
tectors. It was after their death that he wrote, 
at the early age of fifteen: 

" Home! sacred name, at thy endearing sound 
What forms of ravished pleasures hover round ! 
What long-lost blisses, mourned, alas ! in vain, 
Awakened memory gives my soul again ! 
Joys mine no more, yet sweeter, dearer still 
Than all that wait me in this world of ill. 
Thou gnawing canker in misfortune's breast, 
Is this thy beam to soothe a wretch to rest ? 
No, 'tis the light that glimmers on a tomb, 
To add a deeper horror to the gloom. 
Sad is the homeless heart : and mine hath known 
Neglect's cold blasts unpitied and alone ; 
I meet no eye that, softening, rests on mine. 
No hand whose heart-warm pressure says ' 'Tis thine/' 
No lip whose smile a ready welcome bears. 
No heart to share my joys and soothe my cares." 

Drake was by nature and birth a gentleman, 
noble, generous, and ambitious, and possessed 
with an implicit confidence from childhood that 



282 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

by patient perseverance he could surmount every 
obstacle, and replace his family in the position 
to which it was entitled. Like his sisters Caro- 
line and Louise, he was a poet from childhood. 
The few anecdotes of his early years which have 
been preserved in the memories of surviving 
contemporaries include an incident which oc- 
curred when he was seven years of age. Having 
been punished for some childish offence, and im- 
prisoned in a portion of the garret shut off by 
wooden bars, which had originally inclosed the 
place as a wine-closet, his eldest sister stole up- 
stairs to observe how he bore his punishment, 
and found Joe pacing the apartment with some- 
thing like a sword on his shoulder, watching an 
incongruous heap on the floor, in the character 
of Don Quixote at his vigils over the armour in 
the church. At the same early age his ideas 
gleaned from books sought living shapes before 
him in the world. A hard-drinking squire who 
resided near the house of a relative was dubbed 
" Tarn O'Shanter," while a small boy of his ac- 
quaintance, named Oscar, was entitled "Little 
Fingal." His straitened circumstances did 
not prevent the precocious boy from picking up 
a tolerable English education, some little know- 
ledge of Latin and French, and a vast amount of 
general information. He possessed a remarka- 
bly retentive memory, that held fast like hooks of 
steel, and he was then and always a great reader. 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 283 

At the age of five Drake composed highly ad- 
mired conundrums in verse, and at ten wrote some 
promising juvenile poems. A few of these were 
found by the writer among Halleck's papers. 
They were never printed. 

At fourteen Drake wrote the " Mocking-Bird " 
and " The Past and the Present," a portion of 
which furnished the concluding passage oiLeon in 
the published volume of his poems. Four years 
later he abandoned merchandise, a fellow-clerk 
states, *' from a distaste for business," and began 
the study of medicine with Drs. Bruce and Ro- 
mayne. It was at this time, at the age of 
eighteen, that Drake first met Halleck. In the 
summer of 1812 James E. De Kay, then a medi- 
cal student pursuing his studies at Guilford, 
became acquainted with Miss Halleck, the belle 
of that ancient and enterprising New England 
town, who, before his return to New York, gave 
him a letter of introduction to her brother, he 
having the year previous, in Connecticut phrase- 
ology, ''gone a-tradin' down to York." Dur- 
ing the winter of 1812-13, Drake and Halleck 
were made acquainted by De Kay, and from a 
little incident which occurred while the three 
young men were sailing on New York Bay, in the 
spring of 181 3, the party became warmly at- 
tached friends. It was a sunny afternoon, after a 
shower, when Halleck, in the course of a conver- 
sation on the delights of another world, fanci- 



284 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

fully remarked that " It would be heaven to 
lounge upon the rainbow and read Tom Camp- 
bell." Drake was delighted with the thought, 
and from that time they maintained a devoted 
friendship, only severed by death. When the 
young and handsome physician was married, in 
the summer of 1816, to a daughter of the emi- 
nent and opulent shipbuilder, Henry Eckford 
of New York, it was Halleck who officiated as 
groomsman; when he went to Europe with his 
accomplished wife, it was to his brother-poet that 
he addressed several amusing poetical epistles ; 
when their daughter and only child was born, 
she was christened Halleck ; when the pulsa- 
tions of his gentle heart were daily growing fee- 
bler, it was his faithful friend " Fitz" who, with 
more than a brother's love, soothed his dying 
pillow ; and when the grave had for ever closed 
over Drake, it was the same sorrow-stricken 
friend who wrote those exquisitely touching lines 
so familiar to the English-speaking world, and 
which will ever continue to be among Halleck's 
and Drake's most enduring monuments : — 

" Green be the turf above thee, 
Friend of my better days ! 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
Nor named thee but to praise." 

This inimitable monody on Drake by his lite- 
rary partner has perhaps never been equalled 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 285 

for beauty and tenderness, as it has been sur- 
passed in popularity by but few, if any, Ameri- 
can poems. 

One of Drake's resorts in the days when he 
and Halleck were in " the sugar and cotton line" 
was the residence of Colonel Russell, whose 
cook was celebrated for her succotash, a dish of 
which the young poets were extravagantly fond. 
It is, however, questionable whether the corn 
and beans of which it was compounded would 
have had sufficient attraction to draw them there 
so often had there not been domiciled under the 
hospitable roof of the venerable and gallant 
colonel certain young ladies — two fair Elizas — 
whose charms were celebrated by both of the 
admiring poets. Another of their haunts was 
the house of Mrs. Peter Stuyvesant, with whose 
nephew, Egerton Winthrop, Drake was after- 
ward a fellow-pupil under Drs. Bruce and Ro- 
mayne. The residence, long since destroyed, 
stood in the neighbourhood of St. Mark's Church, 
with a beautiful lawn and gardens extending to 
the East River. They spent many happy hours 
in the old mansion, and often during their visits 
would take fishing-rods and proceed to Burnt 
Mill Point, near what is now Tenth Street. On 
one of these excursions, as a venerable contem- 
porary reports, Drake had a nibble, when, giv- 
ing a sudden jerk, he lost his fish, but, singular 
to say, brought up a beautiful bass, whose tail 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



had accidentally come in contact with his hook. 
" There, Fitz," shouted the elated embryo doctor, 
"I've caught a striped bass !" "No, no, Joe," 
answered Halleck, " I should say that he caught 
himself." 

In alluding to the wonderful growth of the 
city, Halleck remarked to the writer that in 
Drake's days his New Year's calls were all, with 
a single exception, made below Canal Street. 
" Now, I suppose, you young gentlemen would 
decline visiting any one who did not live above 
Bleecker." The exceptional call was made upon 
Mrs. Stuyvesant ; "and," said Mr. Halleck, "her 
residence was considered so remote that we al- 
ways took a carriage to go there on New Year's 
Day. She lived a few blocks south of the square 
which at present bears her family name." On one 
occasion, upon entering the spacious mansion, 
the lady said to the poet, " My heart is broken*" 
" Who is the base deceiver ?" asked Halleck. 
" Ah !" replied the disconsolate widow, " it's not 
that ; but the authorities are about to open a 
street through my garden!" That street is First 
Avenue ; and since the poet's death the famous 
pear-tree, which stood on the corner of Thir- 
teenth Street and Third Avenue — the last ves- 
tige of Mrs. Stuyvesant's garden — Drake's 
favourite resort, and one of the landmarks of 
old New York, has been swept away. 

Another of Drake's favourite haunts was the 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 28/ 

country-house of Henry Eckford, who resided 
several miles from New York. It is now in the 
very centre of the city. His fine residence, the 
approach to which was by a beautifully shaded 
avenue called Love Lane, stood near what is now 
Twenty-first Street, between Sixth and Seventh 
avenues. Dr. De Kay and Halleck were also 
frequent visitors, and the quartette was com- 
pleted by Charles P. Clinch, then confidential 
secretary to Mr. Eckford. Many jovial evenings 
were spent by these young gentlemen under the 
roof of the rich Scotch ship-builder, and two 
of the number became his sons-in-law. Still an- 
other of Drake's resorts was Hunt's Point, the 
residence of a relative, by whose family — the 
Hunts — the property had been owned and occu- 
pied, till quite recently, for two hundred years. 
The old Grange, still in good preservation, situ- 
ated at the southeast extremity of the Great 
Planting Neck, called by the Indians Quinna- 
hung, was erected in 1688, on a beautiful point 
overlooking the East River, Flushing Bay, and 
Long Island Sound. Drake and his almost insep- 
arable companion on all such excursions some- 
times reached Hunt's Point by taking the stage 
to West Farms, about two miles distant, or drove 
out with Mr. Eckford's horses. Their usual 
course was, however, by hiring a small boat, 
which they rowed there in the afternoon, return- 
ing to town the following morning. The associ- 



BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



ation of the young poets with Hunt's Point has 
been pleasantly commemorated by two streets 
recently laid-out, bearing their names. 

One of Drake's friends was Dr. William Lang- 
staff, with whom at this period he conducted a 
drug establishment in the basement of Drake's 
residence next to the corner of Park Row and 
Beekman Street, the firm being Drake & Lang- 
staff.* Langstaff was a hearty and happy man. 



* At the time this paper on Drake first appeared, in 1874, 
I received from an anonymous correspondent the following 
interesting communication: 

"Whilst absent from the citj' some days since, I read a 
communication in the Evening Post, wherein the writer as- 
sumes to correct an error, as he calls it, in your allusion to 
the firm of Drake & Langstaff, in the very interesting 
memoir of Dr. Joseph Rodman Drake in Harper s Monthly 
Magazine for June. He denies that Dr. Drake was in part- 
nership with Dr. Langstaff in the drug business, and asserts 
' that the firm of Drake 6^ Langstaff never existed.^ 

" In this your critic is himself mistaken. I remember the 
firm distinctly. Their store was at 34 Park (now Park Row). 
It was not on the corner of Beekman Street, as stated in 
your memoir, but was next door to it. The building on the 
corner — where the office of the Evening Mail now is — was a 
low frame structure, not more than eight feet wide on Park, 
but increasing in width as it extended down Beekman 
Street, and was occupied by an Irishwoman as a grocery 
and liquor store. I can recall quite distinctly the plethoric 
form of this Celtic representative, although I never saw her 
but on ojie occasion, now more than half a century ago, 
from the circumstance that the interview with her marked 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 289 

but decidedly brusque in manner. His first ap- 
pearance at Hunt's Point was described to me 
by a person who witnessed the amusing scene. 
It was on a summer eveninsf in 1816 that the 



an era in my own career. It so happened that she em- 
ployed me, on this occasion, to carry home her basket of 
marketing, for which she paid me ten cents in advance, — 
the first money that I ever earned. I performed the service, 
assisted, as I remember, by a young red-headed chum, who 
had 'a face full of freckles and deviltry,' and who terror- 
ized the neighbourhood as ' Punch McGarrigan.' I believe 
in the doctrine of evolution, and that this boy genius was a 
connecting link, or a veritable progenitor of many of the 
street Arabs of the present day. 

"The store of Drake & Langstaff was in a two-story-and- 
basement building. Dr. Drake resided in the upper part of 
it. The building was of brick, new, and of modern style. 
It had the appearance of having been built expressly for Dr. 
Drake, it was so complete in its arrangements, combining 
the conveniences of a handsome store-room with what 
was in those days an elegant residence. 

" I have reason to believe that Dr. Drake was established 
in this drug business, after his return from Europe in 1819, 
through capital furnished by his father-in-law, the late 
Henry Eckford, Esq., and the Doctor associated with him- 
self as partner — possibly because his own health was feeble, 
or it may be he was conscious he had himself no aptitude 
for the business of trade and the ' compounding of simples,' 
— his friend Dr. Langstaff, under the firm o^ Drake & 
Langstaff. How early in that year the firm was formed 
I am not able to say. Your article in Harper s Monthly 
speaks of the " Croaker" series of poems as havirig origi- 
nated, at first, at a convivial meeting of Dr. Drake, Fitz- 
Greene Halleck, and Dr. Langstaff at the drug establish- 



290 BRYANT AND HIS PRIENDS. 

poets entered, followed by the eccentric apothe- 
cary, who was introduced by Drake to the lady 
of the house. She, in courteous terms, wel- 
comed him to Hunt's Point, and expressed a 



ment of Drake ^ Langstaff. As one of these poems, 
'To Ennui,' appeared in the Evening Post on the loth of 
March, 1819, it would seem as if the firm must have been 
in existence before that date; but I suspect that at that 
time it was only projected, and that the business of the 
firm was not really entered upon until after the month of 
May, for the reason that the name of the firm (or of either 
of the partners) does not appear in Longworth's Directory 
of that year, as would have been the case had the store 
been in operation. The name of the firm, Drake & Lang- 
staff, does appear, however, in the Directory for the year 
1820. Dr. Drake died September 21, of that year, early in 
the morning of that day, as appears from a notice under 
the obituary head in the Evening Post of the same day. 
The funeral took place from his residence, 34 Park, the next 
morning, at ten o'clock. I remember very distinctly witness- 
ing the funeral cortege as it proceeded up Chatham Street, 
in the direction of Hunt's Point, and of counting thirty 
carriages which formed the procession. In those days 
interments were generally made in the burying grounds 
connected with the city churches, consequently carriages 
and hearses were usually dispensed with. The coffin was 
borne on the shoulders of men, and it was followed by the 
mourners and the friends of the deceased on foot. The 
funeral procession of Dr. Drake, from its striking novelty at 
the time, was very imposing to my boyish mind, — for those 
were primitive days, and quite uneventful compared with the 
present spectacular era, — and I was impressed by it with a 
most vivid sense of the deep feeling of respect in which the 
memory of the lamented poet was held by the public. I do 



Joseph rodman drake. 291 



hope that he was well. " By heavens, madam, 
I a7n well!" was Langstaff's reply, in a tremen- 
dously loud voice, which both exceedingly sur- 
prised and very greatly disconcerted the lady 
and her young female friends who were present, 
and who were unacquainted with the new-comer's 
eccentricities. Another of the ladies, who was 
an occasional visitor at Hunt's Point at that 
period, and who recently died in Philadel- 



not know that I have ever seen, since that period, a long 
funeral procession without finding myself, as it were, invol- 
untarily measuring its length by the standard thus impressed 
in my boyhood. 

" After Dr. Drake's death, the drug business was continued 
by Dr. Langstaff on his own account. His name appears 
in Longworth's Directory for 1821 as ' William LangstafT, 
druggist, 34 Park ;' and this is the last record the Direc- 
tory makes of him. He did not survive his partner Dr. 
Drake many months. A young brother of mine had charge 
of his store up to the time of his death. I do not know 
whether he was a clerk there whilst the firm was in existence 
or not. I think I did not visit the store until my brother 
was in sole charge, Dr. Langstaff at the time being confined 
to his bed, — as I was told, dyingof consumption, — and from 
which he never rose. My brother slept in the store, and I 
remember sleeping there myself on one or two occasions, 
and I can recall to my mind its general internal appearance. 
It was a handsome establishment for those days. It was 
well fitted up, and would have presented a creditable appear- 
ance even in these modern times. It was, as the writer in 
the Evening Post says, ' a shop stocked with all the valu- 
able accessories of a chemist and druggist," 



292 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



phia, said to the writer: "We were always de- 
lighted to see Mr. Halleck at Hunt's Point, as he 
would remain and entertain us, while Drake 
would be off in an old coat with his fishing- 
tackle;" adding, " Drake used to sing to us, and 
Halleck would delight us with his poetical recita- 
tions and amusing anecdotes." 

The exquisite poem of "The Culprit Fay," on 
which Drake's reputation as a poet chiefly rests, 
was written in his twenty-first year, and not, as 
it has always been said, in the summer of 1819. 
The production of his chef-d'oeuvre a^rose. out of a 
conversation in which he and his friends Feni- 
more Cooper, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and De Kay 
were speaking of the Scottish streams and their 
adaptation to the uses of poetry by their numer- 
ous romantic associations. Cooper and Halleck 
maintained that our American rivers furnislied 
no such capabilities, when Drake, who was fond 
of argument, took the opposite side of the ques- 
tion, and to make good his position, produced, 
in three days, "The Culprit Fay." The scene is 
laid in the Highlands of the Hudson, but it is 
noticeable that the chief associations conjured 
up relate to the salt-water, Drake drawing his 
inspiration from a familiar haunt on Long Island 
Sound. In a manuscript copy of " The Culprit," * 



* Willis's Athenoeum articles first introduced to the English 
public " The Culprit Fay." loHg passages of which he gave 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 293 

Still in a good state of preservation, the author 
left a note ingeniously removing the diflficult)^: 

" The reader will find some of the inhabitants of salt- 
water a little further up the Hudson than they usually 
travel, but not too far for the purposes of poetry." 

On another manuscript copy of the poem, now 
before me, in Halleck's handwriting, is the in- 
dorsement herewith appended: 

" The following lines were written by Joseph Rod- 
man Drake, in New York, North America, August, 
1816, and copied from the author's manuscript in Janu- 
ary, 1817, by Fitz-Greene Halleck." 

Writing to his sister, January 29, 181 7, Halleck 
jestingly describes Drake's marriage as a " sacri- 
fice." 

" I send you herewith two manuscript poems, writ- 
ten by a friend of mine, Mr. Drake, whose name, I be- 
lieve, I once mentioned to you. He is a young ph3fsi- 
cian, about twenty. ' The Culprit Fay ' was written, be- 
gun and finished, in three days. The copy you have is 
from the original, without the least alteration. It is 
certainly the best thing of the kind in the English lan- 
guage, and is more strikingly original than I had sup- 
posed it possible for a modern poem to be. The other 
' Lines' were written to a ladv after an evening's ramble 



(in 1836) from a manuscript in his possession, the poem 
having not as yet appeared in priat. — Beers' " Life of N. P. 
Willis," p. 217. New York, 1885. 



294 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

near a river, on whose opposite banlc a band of music 
was playing. 'Tis a hackneyed subject, but he has 
given it beauty and novelty. I will send you in a short 
time some other pieces equally good. . . . The poem 
was written in August last, since which its author has 
married, and, as his wife's father is rich, I imagine he 
will write no more. He was poor, as poets of course 
always are, and offered himself a sacrifice at the shrine 
of Hymen, to shun the ' pains and penalties ' of poverty. 
I officiated as groomsman, though much against my 
will. His wife is good-natured, and loves him to dis- 
traction. He is, perhaps, the handsomest man in New 
York — a face like an angel, a form like an Apollo, and, 
as I well know that his person was the true index of 
his mind, I felt myself during the ceremony as com- 
mitting a crime in aiding and assisting in such a sac- 
rifice.". . . 

In a torn and tattered fragment of another 
letter, Halleck, in allusion to Drake, remarks: 

" Even to the most common and trifling subjects he 
will give an interest wholly unexpected and unlooked 
for. His manner of reading Shakspeare is unique, and 
to the bombast of our old friend Ancient Pistol he 
will give a force beyond description. He has a taste 
for music, and plays the flute admirably. As I owe to 
his acquaintance many a pleasant hour, he has become 
endeared to me, and I must apologize for dwelling so 
long on a picture the details of which are so uninter- 
esting to one who has not seen the original." 

Drake's ovi^n description of himself, contained 
in half a dozen hitherto unpublished lines, en- 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 295 

titled " Moi-meme," present a ludicrous contrast 
to his friend's enthusiastic encomiums. They 
are without date, but were presumably written 
prior to his marriage, which placed him in 
affluent circumstances: 

" A comical mixture, half bad and half good, 

Who has skimmed over all things, and naught understood; 
Too dull to be witty, too wild to be grave, 
Too poor to be honest, too proud for a knave — 
In short, a mere chaos, without form or rule, 
Who approaches to all things, but nearest a fool." 

This is much after the style (or more properly, 
before it) of Lowell's '' Fable for Critics," and 
both in measure and mood recalls that graphic 
portrait-gallery — especially its characterization 
of Lowell himself. 

Halleck's prediction, contained in the letter to 
his sister, would have probably proved true. 
Drake would have written little if any more but 
for the purpose of mciting to poetic effort his 
friend, of whose abilities he perhaps formed an 
exaggerated estimate, as expressed in the poem 
• he addressed to Fitz-Greene Halleck, a few years 
after their remarkable friendship began in 1813, 
He was nobly ambitious for himself, but still 
more so for Halleck, to achieve poetic fame, and 
often urged him to act on Sidney's gallant and 
lofty motto, '''' Aut viam inveniam ant fadaj/i." He 
also vainly advised him to abandon "Jacob Bar- 



296 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



ker and business," and to embark upon the 
career of a man of letters. Drake, in his spirited 
address to Halleck, says: 

" Are there no scenes to touch the poet's soul ? 

No deed of arms to wake the lordly strain ? 

Shall Hudson's billows unregarded roll? 

Has Warren fought, Montgomery died in vain? 

Shame! that while every mountain stream and plain 

Hath theme for truth's proud voice or fancy's wand, 

No native bard the patriot harp hath ta'en. 

But left to minstrels of a foreign strand 
To sing the beauteous scenes of nature's loveliest land. 

' Be these your future themes: no more resign 
The soul of song to laud your lady's eyes; 
Go! kneel a worshipper at nature's shrine; 
For you her fields are green and fair her skies; 
For you her rivers flow, her hills arise; 
And will you scorn them all, to pour forth tame 
And heartless lays of feigned or fancied sighs ? 
Still will you cloud the muse, nor blush for shame 
To cast away renown, and hide your head from fame ?" 

There can be no doubt that to Drake's influence 
the world is more indebted than to any of Hal- 
leck's other associates for inciting him to produce, 
some of his noblest strains, while we have evi- 
dence that the latter was inspired by the same 
generous ambition for Drake's fame, as shown 
by the following invocation to activity and exer- 
tion, which was addressed to him by Halleck 
some months before the invalid doctor sailed, in 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 297 

the spring of 1818, for Europe, accompiinied by 
his wife and his friends De Kay and Langstaff: 

"Come, then, dear Joseph, come away; 
'Tis criminal to lose a day 

With talents bright as thine. 
Let indolence on beds of flowers 
Consume the weary, lagging hours; 

Actioiis thy nobler line.'' 

A few days after Di'ake's return from his visit 
to Europe, of which unfortunately no memorials 
are preserved, with the exception of his humor- 
ous poetical epistles included in tlie life of Hal- 
leck, the young poets were spending a Sunday 
evening with Langstaff, when Drake, for his own 
and his friends' amusement, wrote, on the spur 
of the moment, several burlesque stanzas "To 
Ennui," Halleck answering them in some lines 
on the same subject. They decided to send 
their productions, with others of a similar char- 
acter, to Coleman, the editor of the Evening Post. 
Drake accordingly sent three pieces of his own, 
signed " Croaker," a signature adopted from an 
amusing character in Goldsmith's comedy of 
"The Good-natured Man." To the astonishment 
of the trio of friends, a paragraph appeared in 
the Post the day following, acknowledging their 
receipt, promising the insertion of the poems, 
pronouncing them to be the productions of supe- 
rior taste and genius, and begging the honour of 



29S BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

a personal acquaintance with the author. The 
lines "To Ennui" appeared March 10, 1819, and 
the others in almost daily succession, those writ- 
ten by Hallecli being usually signed "Croaker 
Junior," while those which were their joint com- 
position generally bore the signature of " Croak- 
er & Co." 

The remarks made by Editor Coleman had ex- 
cited public attention, and "The Croakers" soon 
became a subject of conversation in drawing- 
rooms, bookstores, coffee-houses on Broadway, 
and throughout the city; they were, in short, a 
town topic. The two friends contributed other 
pieces, and when the editor again expressed 
great anxiety to be acquainted with the writer, 
and used a style so mysterious as to excite their 
curiosity, the literary partners decided to call 
upon him. Drake and Halleck accordingly one 
evening went together to Coleman's residence 
in Hudson Street, and requested an interview. 
Tliey were ushered into the parlour, the editor 
soon entered, the poets expressed a desire for a 
few moments' strictly private conversation, and 
the door being closed and locked, Drake said, 
"lam Croaker, and this gentleman is Croaker 
Junior." Colexnan stared at the young men with 
indescribable and unaffected amazement, at 
length exclaiming, " My God! I had no idea that 
we had such talent in America!" the delighted 
editor continuing in a strain of compliment and 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 299 

eulogy that put them botli to the blusli. Before 
taking their leave the poets bound Coleman to 
the most profound secrecy, and arranged a plan 
of sending the MS. and of receiving the proof 
in a manner that would avoid a possibility of 
the secret of their connection with " The Croak- 
ers" being discovered. The poems were copied 
from the original by Langstaff, that their hand- 
writing should tiot betray them, and were either 
sent through the mail or delivered by Benjamin 
R. Winthrop, then a fellow-clerk with Halleck in 
the Wall Street counting-house of the well- 
known Quaker merchant and banker, Jacob 
Barker, (who died in December, 187 1, at the age 
of ninety-four.) 

Hundreds of imitations of " The Croakers" 
were daily received by the different editors of 
New York, to all of which they gave publicly 
one general answer, that they lacked the genius, 
spirit, and beauty of the originals. Coleman 
showed one of the poets fifteen that he had 
received in a single morning, all of which, with 
a single exception, were consigned to the waste- 
basket. The friends continued for several 
months to keep the city in a blaze of astonish- 
ment; and it was observed by one of the editors 
that "so great was the wincing and shrinking at 
' The Croakers,' that every person was on ten- 
terhooks; neither knavery nor folly has slept 
quietly since our first commencement." 



300 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

In a letter to Miss Halleck, dated April i, 
1819, her brother writes:' 

"Can you believe it, Maria, Joe and I have become 
authors? We have tasted all the pleasures and many 
of the pains of literary fame and notoriety under the 
assumed name of ' The Croakers.' We have had the 
consolation of seeing and of hearing ourselves praised, 
puffed, eulogized, execrated, and threatened as much, 
I believe I can say with truth, as any writers since the 
days of Junius. The whole town has talked of noth- 
ing else for three weeks past ; and every newspaper 
has done us the honour to mention us in some way, 
either of praise or censure, but all uniting in owning 
our talents and genius. ... As luck would have it, Joe 
was under the necessity of going to Albany, and I have 
been compelled to carry on the war alone for ten days 
past, during which time I furnished Coleman with one 
piece each day." 

The " Croakers" were collected and surrepti- 
tiously published by some unknown person in a 
small i8mo pamphlet of thirty-six pages, and 
sold for twenty-five cents. The title of the 
brochure was " Poems by Croaker, Croaker & 
Co., and Croaker Junior, as published in the 
Evening Post. Published for the reader, New 
York, 1819." For a ragged and soiled copy of this 
pamphlet, issued in September, 1819, and which 
appears to have been the property of Dr. Lang- 
staff, a dealer in literary wares in Nassau Street 
had the modesty to demand of the writer not long 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 3OI 

since the sum of five dollars. In i860 the Brad- 
ford Club of New York issued a handsome quarto 
edition, and in 1868 they were included, with sev- 
eral unpublished " Croakers," in an edition of 
Halleck's poems. In lieu of the original signa- 
tures the editor of the volume made known for the 
first time the respective author of each poem, in- 
dicating also by the letters "D. and H." the joint 
authorship of the literary partners, or, to quote 
Halleck's familiar words to the writer, that "we 
each had a finger in the pie." 

Whoever among the present generation would 
desire to learn something of the leading men of 
the city and State, and of the social, scientific, 
and political events of a decade so interesting as 
that of 1819-29 in New York history, cannot but 
be enlightened, as well as greatly amused, by a 
perusal of these poems from the pens of two 
such well-informed and witt)^ men as Drake and 
his friend. 

The surviving partner of the poetical firm told 
the late Frederick S. Cozzens that after Drake's 
proposal to form a literary partnership, many of 
the "Croakers" were written in this wise: he or 
Drake would furnish a draft of a poem, and one 
or the other would suggest any alteration or en- 
largement of the idea, a closer clipping of the 
wings of fanc}', a little epigrammatic spur upon 
the heel of a line. I doubt very much whether 
I have the right to disclose the method by which 



302 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

poets work in their workshops, but as I am only- 
repeating Halleck's ideas, I hold it to be no base 
betrayal of the craft. To show how delightful 
these joint labours were to both of these gen- 
uine men, Halleck told me that upon one oc- 
casion, Drake, after writing some stanzas, and 
getting the proof from the printer, laid his cheek 
down upon the lines he had written, and, look- 
ing at his fellow-poet with beaming eyes, said, 
*' Oh, Halleck, isn't this happiness!" 

"The American Flag," Drake's best-known 
poem, written in his own house between the 
20th and 25th of May, 1819, originally concluded 
with the following lines: 

" As fixed as yonder orb divine, 

That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled, 
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine, 
The guard and glory of the world." 

These not satisfying their author, he said, " Fitz, 
can't you suggest a better stanza?" Whereupon 
Halleck sat down and wrote on the spur of the 
moment the lines that now conclude the poem, 
which Drake immediately accepted, and incor- 
porated: 

" For ever float that standard sheet ! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us !" 

Drake's nephew, C. Graham Tillou, to whom I 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 303 

am indebted for much of the original matter 
contained in this paper, is the fortunate possessor 
of the first draft of the poem. The four con- 
cluding lines are stricken out, and immediately 
below, in Halleck's handwriting, are added the 
lines commencing " For ever float," etc. When 
the poem was first published it was introduced 
by Coleman, the editor of the Post, with the fol- 
lowing remarks: "Sir Philip Sidney said, as Ad- 
dison tells us, that he never could read the old 
ballad of Chevy Chase without feeling his heart 
beat within him as at the sound of a trumpet. 
The following lines, which are to be ranked 
among the highest inspirations of the muse, will 
suggest similar associations in the breast of the 
gallant American officer." 

Another of the literary recreations of the young 
poets "in those happy days when we only lived 
to laugh," as Halleck remarked to the writer, 
was the composition of sermons in answer to 
the Calvinistic discourses of Dr. Samuel H. Cox, 
then attaining considerable celebrity as an elo- 
quent and promising divine. These sermons 
were delivered to a less numerous if not a less 
appreciative audience, consisting usuall}'^ of De 
Kay and Langstaff. Unfortunately their manu- 
scripts, which might have made a majestic vol- 
ume, to be entitled " Halleck and Drake's Ser- 
mons," were not preserved. 

Drake's physician, alarmed by his premonitory 



304 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

symptoms of consumption, advised riding, even 
to the extent of a horseback journey to New- 
Orleans. The poet, although manifesting little 
anxiety about his health, and remarking to a 
friend, in reference to certain dietary restric- 
tions, that when he sat down at the table the 
doctor's directions were forgotten, as a favourite 
dish, however hurtful in theory, could not be 
resisted, was at length prevailed upon to spend 
the winter in the South. A lady who sojourned 
for several months at the poet's residence during 
his absence informed me that he wrote alternately 
to Mrs. Drake and to Halleck, and that his let- 
ters and others from New Orleans concerning 
the invalid's health were eagerly sought after by 
his troops of friends, who would besiege the 
house for news on the arrival of letters. Drake 
returned from Louisiana (where he had enjoyed 
the tender and loving attentions of his sister 
Louise, then the wife of Judge Nichols) in the 
spring, fatally smitten with consumption. He lin- 
gered during the summer, growing daily weaker 
and weaker, and constantly ministered to by De 
Kay, Halleck, and Langstaff. The attachment 
displayed by the latter was extremely touching. 
For several months he continued daily, and oc- 
casionally as often as three or four times each 
day, to go up stairs from the shop to Drake's 
bedside, and say, with tears in his eyes, and with 
the tenderness of a girl, " Mv dear Joe, is there 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 305 

not something I can get for you ?" or, " Can't I 
do anything for you, Joe ?" And the invalid 
would make him happy by devising some tri- 
fling commission for his affectionate friend to 
execute. 

Drake died September 21, 1820, his frame 
consumed by his malady, but his mental facul- 
ties clear and unimpaired, his smile as sweet 
and his eyes as bright as in his best days. When 
he first reposed in death, as I learn by a MS. 
from the pen of the poet's brother-in-law, the 
late Francis R. Tillou, "a circumstance occurred 
which, in superstitious times, would have estab- 
lished the idea that he was peculiarly a child of 
heaven. At midnight of the day he died the sky 
was quite cloudless ; myriads of bright stars 
glittered there; and, like a glowing ball, the 
moon hung in the azure heavens, eclipsed, 
shrouded in a dark veil — an elegant type, a 
token of sympathy for the departure of a spirit 
once so warmly its votary." He was buried at 
Hunt's Point; and as Halleck returned from 
the funeral, he said to De Kay, "There will be 
less sunshine for me hereafter, now that Joe is 
gone." 

A low monument of marble, surmounted by a 
quadrangular pyramid, rises above the grave 
where the poet's remains have reposed for sixty- 
five years. The inscription is on one side, and 



306 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

reads thus: "Sacred to the memory of Joseph 
R. Drake, M.D., who died September 21, 1820. 

" None knew him but to love him, 
None named him but to praise." 

These lines were afterward slightly varied \ and 
improved by their author, and now read as 
quoted on page 284. 

When Drake was on his death-bed, at his 
wife's request Dr. De Kay collected and copied 
all his poems which could be found, and took 
them to him. "See, Joe," said he, "what I have 
done." "Burn them," said the dying poet; 
" they are valueless." A fastidious selection of 
her father's poems was, however, made in Oc- 
tober, 1835, by the poet's daughter and only 
child, being the volume (issued in 1836), fitly 
dedicated to Fitz-Greene Halleck, who was once 
solicited by a publisher to write a memoir of 
Drake, but declined. He remarked to a friend, 
in alluding to the subject, "What could I say 
about a young poet whose uneventful career was 
closed at twenty-five? I should necessarily have 
been as brief as Steevens, whose life of Shak- 
speare was compressed, as you remember, into 
some half dozen lines." 

Something more than a score of years after 
Drake's death, Halleck, in a poetical epistle to 
a lady who was associated with their happiest 
hours at Hunt's Point, said : 



[OSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 307 

" Gone are the days of sunny weather 

(I quote remembered words), when we 
' Revelled in poetry ' together, 

And frightened leaves from off their tree, 
With declamation loud and long, 
From epic sage and merry song, 

And odes and madrigals and sonnets, 
Till all the birds within the wood, 
And people of the neighbourhood, 

Said we'd ' a bee in both our bonnets.' 
And he* sat listening — he the most 
Honoured and loved, and early lost — 
He in whose mind's brief boyhood hour 
Was blended, by the marvellous power 

That Heaven-sent genius gave, 
The green blade with the golden grain, 
Alas ! to bloom and beard in vain, 
Sheafed round a sick-room's bed of pain. 

And garnered in the grave." 

"A man that is young in years may be old in 
hours," remarks Bacon, " if he have lost no time; 
but that happeneth rarely." Measured by such 
a standard, judged by what he did, Drake's life 
was longer than that of many a man who attains 
the allotted threescore and ten. It is perhaps 
idle now to speculate as to what his poetic genius 
;ould have produced had he been spared to the 
ivorld like Dana and Bryant and Longfellow, oi 
even to the age attained by his poetic favourites, 
Burns and Byron. Many of his poems wetw 



■Joseph Rodman Drake. 



308 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

left unfinished, among the number one entitled 
Leon., clearly manifesting his knowledge of the 
human heart. The first part of this incomplete 
work appeared in the published volume of 
Drake's poems ; the second part — a fragment — 
is appended to this paper, and is now printed 
for the first time. 

LEON.— Part II. 

" The course of true love never did run smooth." — Shakspeare. 

I wish I had a small secluded spot, 

Some wild-wood dell and bower-enshaded grot, 

Where never glimpse of human face was seen, 

And none but fairy feet have trod the green, 

That with one trusting friend who loved me well. 

Unseen, unknown. I might for ever dwell ; 

And, far from woman's spell, sequestered move 

Beyond the doubts, the fears, the crimes, the woes, of love 

Poor son of sorrow, child of sighs and tears. 

Born in wild hopes, and nursed in wilder fears, 

Short are the joys that glad thy weeping eyes 

As rainbow tints that vanish while they rise. 

Glimpses of heaven that only serve to show 

The double deepness of succeeding woe. 

Oh, why, sweet cherub of celestial birth. 

In mercy sent to light and warm the earth. 

Why are thy purposed gifts for ever lost. 

Crushed by cold prudence, or in passion tossed '■ 

Still the warm hearts that bend to thy control 

Must bend in sorrow, or in frenzy roll. 

And reason only wakes to tell despair 

How blest they might have been, how curst they are. 

But why should dark, foreboding dreams destroy 

The fleeting forms of momentary joy ? 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 309 

Why damp the bliss with such presagings sad 
While eyes around are bright, and hearts are glad? 
For her, in every corner of the place, 
Dressed up in smiles is seen each happy face, 
Grandsire and crone, brisk youth and maiden gay. 
And children pranked in holiday array 
Around the castle stand, or sit, or trip, 
Joy in each eye and smiles on every lip ; 
While talk and whisper buzzes far and wide, 
Of the brave bridegroom and the bonny bride. 
Some crowd the gates, some lie along the grass 
On the green road through which the train will pass ; 
Some, more impatient to behold the band. 
Around the chapel archway take their stand, 
Or, climbing to the windows, strive in vain 
To send their glances through the painted pane. 
The nearest bend their ears toward the lay, 
And strive to hear, although they cannot see ; 
While some, more daring, forward thrust the chin, 
And set the door acrack and peep within. 
Oh, 'tis an awful and a glorious sight ! 
The dim sun flings his unstained light, 
The flame-tipt columns of the altar torch 
Strike a long gleam along the fretted porch, 
And lustres, with their branchy arms outspread, 
From pendent drops ten thousand sparkles shed ; 
The velvet surface of the pulpit pall 
Ifl gentle waves and crimson flashes fall. 
While the gay arches of the ceiling throw 
Broad, massy shades and darkening streaks below. 
Then might you see, with nod and smile and stoop 
Of knights and dames, a gallant, joyous group. 
Filling the space, and glancing here and there 
A brilliant eye, or turning smooth and fair 
A neck of marble white, or with a bow 
Shaking the plume that quivers on the brow. 



3IO BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Within the altar paling stands the choir. 
The mitred priest, the cowled and shaven friar, 
And novice boy, who with a holy look 
Carries the pyx, or bears the sacred book. 
Or, as the words of reverent praise are spoke, 
Heaves to the Saviour-cross the curling incense smoke. 

But hark ! from yonder sable-curtained dome 
In long low strains the feeble voices come, 
Swell, fall, subside, and as the murmur dies, 
Full, clear, and strong the solemn chantings rise 
And gentle organ stops, with breathing sound, 
Like songs of distant angels, float around ; 
And now they mingle, pause, and now alone 
Peals in deep majesty the lengthened tone ; 
Slowly, as sinks the faint receding wail. 
The cowled priest advances to the pale. 

In the history of literary partnerships I know 
of none more beautiful than that of the sweet 
companionship of Drake and Halleck. Genius 
does not readily amalgamate ; hence partner- 
ships in the literary world are more rare than 
they are in the commercial. Almost the only 
parallel to the young American poets is that of 
Beaumont and Fletcher, " the rich conception of 
whose twin-like brains" sprang from an equally 
thorough and genuine union of congenial minds. 
In both cases the poet-partners had much be- 
sides genius in common. Contemporary critics 
give to Beaumont the credit of restraining the 
exuberant wit and fancy of Fletcher ; but truly, 
such was the "wondrous consimility of fancy," 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 3II 

as Aubrey calls it, between them, that it is ut- 
terly impossible to guess at the share of the 
dramatists in the plays bearing their joint names, 
for there is nothing to distinguish them in any 
way from those written by Fletcher after the 
grass was growing over his friend's grave. The 
same, I think, may be said of those sprightly 
jeux d' esprit, "The Croakers," concerning which 
the public were equally in the dark respecting 
the source from which individual poems ema- 
nated, even after it was well known that they 
were the handiwork of the literary partners 
Fitz-Greene Halleckand Joseph Rodman Drake, 
the Damon and Pythias of American poets. 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 

1806-1867. 

It was a sunny summer's morning in the month 
of September when we landed from a steamer 
at the wharf known as Cornwall's Landing, mid- 
way between Cold Spring and Newburgh, on 
the Hudson River. We then wended our way 
to a picturesque, many-gabled Gothic structure, 
nestled among luxurious evergreens, admirably 
situated on the plateau north of the Highlands, 
and within sound, under favourable conditions 
of the weather, of the evening gun at West 
Point. Entering the substantially-built brick 
residence, we saw around us on every side unmis- 
takeable evidences of culture and refinement in 
the tasteful furniture, pictures, books, and num- 
erous nameless little articles and their arrange- 
ment, so perfectly in keeping with one's ideas of 
a poet's home. A tall and elegant figure, with 
rosy cheeks and a luxuriance of clustering hair, 
which upwards of fifty winters had failed to 
whiten, enters with the easy grace of a man of 
the world, and we see before us our friend the 
master of the mansion. After a cordial greeting 
and an interview with the ladies of his house- 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 313 

hold, we sally forth to see his loved domaii. 
called "Idlewild," and to look at the extensive 
and varied views commanded by his " coign of 
vantage." 

Around us we see the Storm King and other 
lofty wooded mountains, towering to a height of 
nearly two thousand feet; the noble river — here 
expanding in a broad bay, on whose bosom the 
white-sailed sloops and schooners are idly float- 
ing Avith the flood-tide ; and on the opposite 
shore, valleys and hillsides, sprinkled with coun- 
try-seats, from among which our companion 
points out the ancestral home of the venerable 
Gulian C. Verplanck, and the summer resi- 
dences of other mutual New York friends. Pass- 
ing through the well-kept grounds, we soon reach 
a picturesque glen, and descending, pass along 
to a mass of rocks, among which the musical 
waters rush joyously past on their way to the 
great river some two hundred feet below and 
nearly two miles distant. 

Seated on the gray rocks, Mr. Willis described 
his first visit to the site on which his beautiful 
home stands. " I was recommended," he said, 
"by my physician to seek a home somewhere 
north of the Highlands; and some sixteen years 
ago, when I first saw this place, it was one of 
the roughest pieces of uncultivated land that 
I ever looked at. But it had capabilities. I saw 
trees, knolls, rocks, and this ravine musical with 



314 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

water-falls, and looking to the south ' a noble 
wild prospect,' as Sam Johnson would have said; 
and I at once determined that it should be mine. 
I passed over the rough and rocky fifty acres 
with the owner, who looked his astonishment, as 
well as expressed it, that a New Yorker should 
have any use for his * unimproved property,' as 
he called it. He said, ' What on earth can you 
do with it ? It's only an idle wild.' I did not 
tell him; but I bought it, and you see what I 
have made of it, and that I was indebted to my 
Dutch predecessor for a very pretty and appro- 
priate name." Here, with the exception of a 
health-trip to the Tropics and to the Western 
and Southern States in 1851-52, the gifted and 
graceful writer spent the last twenty years of his 
busy literary life. Here it was that, after 
bravely battling for existence for many weary 
winters, he at length, on the sixtieth anniversary 
of his birth, fell a victim to consumption, and 
was laid at rest by the side of his mother's grave 
in Mount Auburn. 

Later in the day, in company with the ladies 
of his household, we had a charming drive to 
the Powellton House, above Newburgh, stopping 
by the way to visit an interesting memorial of 
Revolutionary days — Washington's headquar- 
ters. During our drive Mr. Willis spoke of sev- 
eral of his gifted contemporaries — Fitz-Greene 
Halleck among the number — who had honoured 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 315 

Idlewild with their presence, and alluded with 
particular pleasure to the delight with which a 
few summers previous he had welcomed Wash- 
ington Irving to his Highland home. In a letter 
to the late John P. Kennedy, Irving mentioned 
the visit, and thus described the poet and his 
picturesque place: 

" I lately made a day's excursion up the Hudson, in 
company with Mr. and Mrs. Moses H. Grinnell and 
two or three others, to see Mr. Willis in his poetical re- 
treat of Idlewild. It is really a beautiful place, the site 
well chosen, commanding noble and romantic scenery; 
the house commodious and picturesque, and furnished 
with much taste. In a word, it is just such a retreat 
as a poet would desire. I never saw Willis to such ad- 
vantage as on this occasion. . . . Willis talks and writes 
much about his ill-health, and is really troubled with 
an ugly cough; but I do not think his lungs are af- 
fected, and I think it likely he will be like a cracked 
pitcher, which lasts the longer for having a flaw in it, 
being so much the more taken care of." 

The family of N. P. Willis trace back their de- 
scent to George Willis, a native of England, who 
as a newly-settled resident of Cambridge was 
admitted " Freeman of Massachusetts" in 1638. 
The poet's father and grandfather were publish- 
ers and editors of newspapers, and the latter was 
an apprentice in the office with Benjamin Frank- 
lin, and a member of the famous Boston Tea- 
Party. His father, Nathaniel Willis, a native of 



3l6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Boston, founded in that city in 1816 the first 
firmly-established religious newspaper in the 
world — the Boston Recorder — which he conducted 
for twenty years, establishing during the latter 
part of the same time the first child's newspaper 
in this country — the YoutJis Companion. He died 
in 1871, having outlived his son several years, 
and his wife, a woman of marked intellectual 
endowments, for a period of a quarter of a cen- 
tury. The poet in his verse has taught us to 
revere the memory of his mother, who was held 
in the highest regard by many of the best and 
wisest men of her day and generation, who were 
her habitual and admiring correspondents. 

Nathaniel Parker Willis was born in Portland, 
Me. (also the birthplace of Longfellow), Janu- 
ary 20, 1806. His father removed to Boston 
when he was six years of age, and soon after he 
was sent to the Rev. Dr. MacFarlane of Con- 
cord, N. H., to gain the rudiments of an English 
education. At the Boston Latin School and the 
Phillips Academy at Andover, he received his 
principal education previous to entering Yale 
College in 1823. He displayed good scholarship, 
and soon established a reputation as a writer of 
verses by gaining a fifty-dollar prize offered by 
the publishers of "The Album," an illustrated 
annual, for the best poem. Many of his college 
exercises were of very unusual excellence. Soon 
after leaving college, at the age of twenty, Willis 



l^ATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 317 

was employed by S. G. Goodrich, the well-known 
'' Peter Parley," to edit certain volumes pub- 
lished under the title of " The Legendary," and 
also to have supervision of " The Token," an an- 
nual gift-book. 

In 1829 he established the American Morithly 
Magazine, which he conducted for two years, 
and then merged it in the New York Mirror, 
a weekly literary journal, begun in 1823 by 
George P. Morris and Samuel Woodworth, by 
whose request Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote the 
exquisite lines addressed to "A Poet's Daughter." 
Willis soon after visited Europe, where he wrote 
for his paper " Pencillings by the Way," a series 
of pleasant gossipy sketches that were exceed- 
ingly popular at the time. During his first visit 
to Paris, our Minister, William C. Rives, attached 
him to his Legation, and it was with diplomatic 
passport and privilege that he made his way 
leisurely to the different courts and capitals of 
Europe and the East, having entree everywhere 
to the highest circles. In 1835, after two years' 
residence in England, he married Mary Leighton 
Stace, daughter of Commissary-General William 
Stace, then in command of the Royal Arsenal at 
Woolwich, a distinguished officer, who was in 
the enjoyment of a handsome pension from 
Government for gallantry at Waterloo. Willis, 
like many another poetic spirit, was unfortu- 
nate in his first love affair. He was enffag-ed 



3l8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

to Miss Benjamin of Boston, afterwards the 
wife of the historian Motley, but the engage- 
ment was broken through the determined oppo- 
sition of the young lady's guardian. The late 
George Lunt of Boston (1803-85) described 
them as "very handsome and deeply attached 
lovers." He was also acquainted with the poet's 
father and mother, and said the former " was a 
mild little man who lived to be ninety, and his 
gifted son was a great favourite with Mrs. Har- 
rison Gray Otis, the social leader of her day." 

During the same year Willis issued in book 
form his "Pencillings by the Way," for which 
he received from an English publisher the hand- 
some sum of fifteen hundred dollars. Lockhart 
ia the Quarterly and Captain Marryatt in the 
Metropolitan Magazine criticised the volume with 
great severity — the latter with so much malig- 
nity that Willis felt called upon to challenge the 
redoubtable navigator. The challenge was ac- 
cepted, a hostile meeting took place at Chat- 
ham, but no blood was spilt. He also published 
in England "Inklings of Adventure," which 
proved both popular and lucrative. In 1837 
Willis and his wife sailed for New York, and 
soon after their arrival he gratified his taste for 
country life by the purchase of two hundred 
acres in the valley of the Susquehanna, near 
Oswego, and the erection of a cottage, in which 
he hoped to spend the remainder of his life. In 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 319 

this lovely rural home on the banks of the Sus- 
quehanna, which he called, after his wife, " Glen- 
mary," he spent five happy years, writing pleasant 
''Letters from Under a Bridge," and spending 
money, as most literary farmers do, in impracti- 
cable and unprofitable agricultural experiments. 
By the death of General Stace, the failure of 
his publisher, and other mishaps which involved 
his means of support, Willis was compelled, when 
liis daughter Imogene was born, to part with his 
liome, to which he was so deeply attached, and 
once more betake himself to active life. In sell- 
ing " Glenmary," in 1842, he addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to the unknown purchaser and 
occupant of his beautiful retreat: 

" Sir : In selling you the dew and sunshine ordained 
to fall hereafter on this bright spot of earth, the 
waters on their way to this sparkling brook, the tints 
mixed for the flowers of that enamelled meadow, and 
the songs bidden to be sung in coming summers by 
the feathery builders in Glenmary, I know not whether 
to wonder more at the omnipotence of money or at 
my own audacity toward Nature. How you can buy 
the right to exclude at will every other creature made 
in God's image from sitting by this brook, treading on 
that carpet of flowers, or lying listening to the birds in 
the shade of these glorious trees — how I can sell it to 
you — is a mystery not understood by the Indian, and 
dark, I must say, to me. 

" ' Lord of the Soil ' is a title which conveys your 
privileges but poorly. You are master of waters flow- 



320 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ing at this moment, perhaps, in a river of Judea, or 
floating in clouds over some spicy island of the tropics, 
bound hither after many changes. There are lilies 
and violets ordered for you in millions, acres of sun- 
shine in daily instalments, and dew nightly in propor- 
tion. There are throats to be tuned with song, and 
wings to be painted with red and gold, blue and yel- 
low; thousands of them, and all tributary to you. 
Your corn is ordered to be sheathed in silk, and lifted 
high to the sun. Your grain is to be duly bearded and 
stemmed. There is perfume distilling for your clover, 
and juices for your grasses and fruits. Ice will be here 
for your wine, shade for your refreshment at noon, 
breezes and showers and snowflakes — all in their sea- 
son, and all ' deeded to you for forty dollars the acre.' 
Gods ! what a copyhold of property for a fallen world ! 

" Mine has been but a short lease of this lovely and 
well-endowed domain (the duration of a smile of for- 
tune, five years, scarcely longer than a five-act play) ; 
but as in a play we sometimes live through a life, it 
seems to me that I have lived a life at Glenmary. 
Allow me this, and then you must allow me the 
privilege of those who, at the close of life, leave some- 
thing behind them — that of writing out my will. 
Though I depart this life, I would fain, like others, 
extend my ghostly hand into the future; and if wings 
are to be borrowed or stolen where I go, you may rely 
on my hovering around and haunting you in visitations 
not restricted by cock-crowing. 

" Trying to look at Glenmary through your eyes, 
Sir, I see too plainly that I have not shaped my ways 
as if expecting a successor in my lifetime. I did not, 
I am free to own. I thought to have shuffled off my 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 32 1 

mortal coil tranquilly here — flitting at last in compan)- 
with some troop of my autumn leaves, or some bevy 
of spring blossoms, or with snow in the thaw; my 
tenants at my back, as a landlord may say, I have 
counted on a life-interest in the trees, trimming them 
accordingly; and in the squirrels and birds, encourag- 
ing them to chatter and build and fear nothing; no 
guns permitted on the premises. I have had my will 
of this beautiful stream. I have carved the woods in 
a shape to my liking. I have propagated the despised 
sumach and the persecuted hemlock and ' pizen laurel.' 
And ' no end to the weeds dug up and set out again,' 
as one of my neighbours delivers himself. I have built 
a bridge over Glenmary brook, which the town looks 
to have kept up by ' the place,' and we have plied free 
ferry over the river, I and my man Tom, till the neigh- 
bours, from the daily saving of the two miles round, 
have got the trick of it. And betwixt the aforesaid 
Glenmary brook and a certain muddy plebeian gutter 
formerly permitted to join company with and pollute 
it I have procured a divorce at much trouble and 
pains — a guardian duty entailed of course on my suc- 
cessor. 

" First of all, sir, let me plead for the old trees of 
Glenmary ! Ah, those friendly old trees ! The cottage 
stands belted in with them, a thousand visible from the 
door, and of stems and branches worthy of the great 
valley of the Susquehanna. For how much music 
played without thanks am I indebted to those leaf- 
organs of changing tone ? for how many whisperings 
of thought breathed like oracles into my ear ? for how 
many new shapes of beauty moulded in the leaves by 
the wind ? for how much companionship, solace, and 



322 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

welcome? Steadfast and constant is the countenance 
of such friends. God be praised for their staid wel- 
come and sweet fidelity ! If I love them better than 
some things human, it is no fault of ambitiousness in 
the trees. They stand where they did. But in recoil- 
ing from mankind one may find them the next kind- 
liest things, and be glad of dumb friendship. Spare 
those old trees, gentle Sir !" 

Willis continues his letter with pleas for kindly 
consideration towards his beautiful birds, liis 
saucy squirrels, and a certain portly and venera- 
ble toad — "mine ancient" — dwelling near the 
margin of the river ; closing his delightfully 
characteristic letter with the following para- 
graph : 

"And now, sir, I have nothing else to ask, save only 
your watchfulness over the small nook reserved from 
this purchase of seclusion and loveliness. In the 
shady depths of the small glen above you, among the 
wild-flowers and music of the brook babbling over 
rocky steps, is a spot sacred to love and memory. 
Keep it inviolate, and as much of the happiness of 
Glenmary as we can leave behind stay with you for 
recompense !" 

On his return to New York, Willis, in com- 
pany with William T. Porter, establisiied The 
Corsair, a very handsome and, during its brief 
existence, brilliantly written weekly journal, 
and the following year sailed for England. 
While there he engaged Thackeray, who was 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 323 

comparatively unknown, to write for his paper. 
When abroad Willis published, under the title 
of "Two Ways of Dying for a Husband," a 
volume containing his two plays of " Bianca 
Visconti" and " Tortesa the Usurer;" wrote the 
letter-press for Bartlett's series of Views in the 
United States and Canada ; and brought out in 
London a book entitled " Loiterings of Travel." 
When Willis returned to the United States he 
found the Corsair cast away on the reefs of 
bankruptcy, and with fortunate instinct entered 
into partnership with his old shipmate George 
P. Morris, and began the Evening Mirror. On 
this daily journal he worked with unflagging 
zeal, but the exactions of the position were more 
than he could endure, and made the first break 
in a constitution of great natural vigour. His 
health giving way, and his sorrows and trials 
being doubled by the death of his wife, he souglit 
relief in foreign travel. In England he suffered 
from a serious attack of brain-fever, and after- 
ward, in Germany, he was for several months 
an invalid. Partially regaining his health, he 
visited Berlin, and was warmly welcomed by his 
former literary associate in the Mirror., Theodore 
S. Fay, then Secretary of Legation with our Am- 
bassador Henry Wheaton, who offered Willis a 
diplomatic position. With a view to its accept- 
ance, and pursuing his labours on the Continent, 
he went to England to place his daughter at 



3^4 :brVant and his friends. 

school. Failing health, however, induced him to 
change his plans, and in place of going to Ger- 
many he decided to return with his child to the 
United States. 

Early in the year 1846 Willis arrived in New 
York, and the following autumn married Cor- 
nelia, the niece and adopted daughter of the late 
Joseph Grinnell of New Bedford, then a member 
of Congress from Massachusetts. Henry and 
Moses H. Grinnell of New York were her uncles. 
Soon after the Evening Mirror '^2a discontinued, 
and the partners established the Home Journal^ 
a weekly publication, which is still pursuing a 
pleasant and profitable existence. It was an 
agreeable return to the more quiet paths of 
literature, and one that was much better adapted 
to both the poets. The new paper proved a 
great pecuniary and literary success. For twenty 
years Mr. Willis continued to contribute weekly 
letters and leaders from his home on the Hud- 
son, to which he retired soon after his second 
marriage, and where a son and two daughters 
were born. The letters were collected and pub- 
lished in uniform volumes, and give the outlines 
of his life for those years. The charms of his 
beautiful home of Idlewild, which he described 
with a freedom highly honourable to his char- 
acter for hospitalit)'^, — for many who were happy 
to read were still happier to see, — made it per- 
haps the best-known rural home in the land, 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 325 

with the single exceptions of " Mount Vernon" 
and "Sunnyside." Forty-five years ago " Glen- 
mary" was almost equally famous. 

Living in a show-place like Sunnyside or Idle- 
wild, with their unceasing flow of known and un- 
known visitors, would to less generous and genial 
people than Mr. Willis and his household have 
been simpl}^ insupportable. But they bore up 
under it with a gay and gallant resignation that 
was quite remarkable. On the subject of his un- 
known visitors the poet once said: 

" Strangers coming to Idlewild often send to the cot- 
tage door to inquire 'whether a stroll through the glen 
will be any intrusion.' A beautiful boy — so beautiful, 
that, as he stood upon rock by one of the water-falls, 
he left a picture there which the sight of the rock will 
always recall to me — said he had often wanted to stroll 
through the glen, but that his uncle, with whom he 
had driven past the gate, would not go into any man's 
grounds with whom he was unacquainted. 'Why, my 
sweet fellow, it would be time for a new deluge if any 
bright spot on the surface of the earth could be so shut 
from you. No, no : there is no such right of property 
possible in a republic. Fence out pigs we may, if we 
know how, and nobody leaves the gate open ; but to 
fence out a genial eye from any corner of the earth which 
Nature has lovingly touched with that pencil which 
never repeats itself ; to shut up a glen or a water-fall for 
any man's exclusive knowing and enjoying ; to lock up 
trees and glades, shady paths and haunts along rivulets 
— it would be an embezzlement by one man of God's 



326 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



gifts to all. A capitalist might as well curtain off a star, 
or have the monopoly of an hour. Doors may lock, 
but outdoors is a freehold to feet and eyes.' " 

A story is told of a foreigner who essayed to ex- 
plore his moonlight way alone over the river-path 
from the Cornwall Landing to the poet's home. 
Insuflticiently directed, he mistook a huge barn 
en route for the veritable cottage of the muses, 
and kept knocking, knocking, at the gray old 
door, looking up ever and anon interrogatively, 
and soliloquizing thus: " 'Tis very plain! very 
plain house indeed ! But mon Dieu, Willis is a 

poet r 

In another of his charming and characteristic 
communications to the Home Journal, Willis re- 
marks: 

" My cottage at Idlewild is a pretty type of the two 
lives which they live who are wise — the life in full view, 
which the world thinks all ; and the life out of sight, of 
which the world knows nothing. You see its front 
porch from the thronged thoroughfares of the Hudson ; 
but the grove behind it overhangs a deep-down glen, 
tracked but by my own tangled paths and the wild tor- 
rent which they by turns avoid and follow — a solitude in 
which the hourly hundreds of swift travellers who pass 
within echo distance effect not the stirring of a leaf. 
But it does not take precipices and groves to make 
these close remotenesses. The city has many a one — 
many a wall on the crowded street, behind which is the 
small chamber of a life lived utterly apart. Idlewild, 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 32 7 

with its viewless other side hidden from the thronged 
Hudson, — its dark glen of rocks and woods, and the 
thunder or murmur of its brook, — is but this every wise 
man's inner life ' illustrated and set to music ' ? " 

The following letter to an unknown youth pos- 
sesses more than a personal interest. It presents 
a view of the labours and hardships of literary 
men some forty years ago, which will be con- 
templated with something like wonder by the 
present generation. It was written at the period 
when there was little appreciation for American 
literature, and when Hawthorne could describe 
himself as "the obscurest man of letters in the 
United States." Few authors find time to reply, 
as Willis did, to such epistles, and still fewer 
possess the taste and feeling to inspire such a one 
as this. Truly, as Halleck said of Willis, " he was 
one of the kindest of men, and one of the best of 
letter-writers." 

Washington, April 29, 1846. 
My dear Sir : Your letter, forwarded to me here, 
is just received, and I hasten to comply with your re- 
quest ; though young poets ask advice very much. as 
lovers do — after they are irrevocably engaged. In the 
first place, however, I should always advise against adopt- 
ing the literary profession ; for, at best, it is like making 
waggon-traces of your hair, wholly insufficient for wants 
which increase as the power gives way. . . . There are 
many men of the same calibre who would go on and 
starve, up tp the empty honour of being remembered 



328 BRYAN 7^ AND HIS FRIENDS. 

first when dead, were it not that they could turn their 
more common powers to account, and live by meaner 
industry. Poetry is an angel in your breast, and you 
had better not turn her out to be your maid-of -all-work. 
As to writing for magazines, that is very nearly done 
with, as a matter of profit. The competition for noto- 
riety alone gives the editors more than they can use. 
You could not sell a piece of poetry now in America. 
The literary avenues are all overcrowded, and you can- 
not live by the pen, except as drudge to a newspaper. 
Notwithstanding all this, you will probably try it ; and 
all I can say is, you shall have my sympathy and what 
aid I can give you. If you should come to New York, 
and will call on me, I shall be happy to say more than 
I have time to write. 

Yours, very truly, N. P. WiLLls. 

Writing from Idlewild in the spring after the 
author's visit already described Willis says: 

"Thanks for your pleasant gossiping letter. Write 
me some more. . . . All as usual here. Ice firm, and 
droves of cattle crossing the river yesterday — March 
22 ! ! ! It is just as much as I can do to wag my Tale 
this week [his novel " Paul Fane"], which begins to 
please and interest me." 

The last time I met the poet we dined to- 
gether in New York. He was not in good health, 
but his spirits were unaffected by his bodily mal- 
adies, and he entertained me with many of his 
reminiscences of English society. Speaking of 
Holland House, he said: "Lady Holland once 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 329 



sent her page round the table to Macaulay to 
tell him to stop talking. She told Rogers, ' Your 
poetry is bad enough, so pray be spaiing of your 
prose.' At a dinner in South Street she fidgeted 
Lord Melbourne so much by making him shift his 
place when he was seated to his liking, that he 

rose, exclaiming, ' I'll be if I dine with you 

at all,' and walked off to his own house — for- 
tunately at hand. She requested a celebrated 
dandy to move a little farther off, on the ground 
that her olfactory nerves were offended by his 
blacking — the blacking which he vowed was di- 
luted with champagne. Shortly after M. Van 
de Weyer's arrival in England as a Belgian Min- 
ister, he was dining with a distinguished party 
at Holland House, when Lady Holland sudden- 
ly turned to him and asked, ' How is Leopold ? ' 
' Does your ladyship mean the King of the Bel- 
gians ?' 'I have heard,' she rejoined, 'of Flem- 
ings, Hainaulters, and Brabanters; but Belgians 
are new to me.' His reply was, ' My lady, be- 
fore I had the honour to be presented to you, I 
had often heard you spoken of not only as a 
woman of intelligence and wit, but as a woman 
who had read much. Well, is it possible that 
you in your many readings have never met with 
the book by a person named Julius Caesar? In 
his Commentaries he gives to our population 
the name of the Belgians, and this name we have 
preserved till our days.' " 



330 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

In the course of our after-dinner talk, Willis 
expressed the kindest feelings towards several 
members of the literary profession who had dis- 
played an unfriendly attitude respecting him- 
self, and spoke in the highest terms of the poetic 
genius of Halleck, for whom he ever felt the 
warmest regard. Alluding to him and some 
others, he said in the words of Shakespeare: 

"I count myself in nothing else so happy, 
As in a soul remembering my good friends." 

Speaking of a certain person recently deceased, 
Willis remarked, " Before ' from earth de- 
scended,' as Landor's epigram puts it." Refer- 
ring to Milton, he said: " It is two hundred years 
since Milton began to prune his wings for the 
great epic of his age and nation. Nothing com- 
parable with it has appeared since." When I 
mentioned a recent meeting with Longfellow, 
who had spoken highly of his poetic gifts and 
of his kind heart, ever ready and willing to aid 
young literary aspirants, Willis replied: ''The 
Professor is our most pleasing and popular poet, 
and he is certainly one of the most aimable and 
accomplished of men. I know of no American 
author who is more to be admired and perhaps 
envied. Poe was his only enemy." He also 
expressed much admiration for several of the 
sprightly poetical productions of Holmes; who 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 33 1 

in 1884 described Willis as "something between 
a remembrance of Count D'Orsay and an an- 
ticipation of Oscar Wilde." On the same occa- 
sion Willis remarked that, in a conversation with 
him, Tom Moore, the Irish poet, expressed un- 
bounded admiration for Voltaire's " Life of 
Charles the Twelfth," saying, " It will live and 
be read as long as there is a book in the world." 
Willis thought that some of the late Victor 
Hugo's writings had a better prospect of im- 
mortality than the memoir of " the tall Swedish 
madman." 

In April, 1885, awell-written biography of Willis 
appeared from the pen of Prof. Beers, being one 
of the " American Men of Letters" series, and he 
also issued, in the following month, a judicious 
selection in a single volume of the prose writ- 
ings of the same author, concerning whom he 
says, " Laying aside all question of appeal to 
that formidable tribunal, posterity, the many 
contemporaries who have owed hours of refined 
enjoyment to his graceful talent will join heartily 
with Thackeray in his assertion, ' It is comforta- 
ble that there should have been a Willis.' " 

Halleck expressed the opinion that the poem 
by which Willis would be remembered was the 
one entitled " Unseen Spirits," and Poe dis- 
covered true imagination in the stanzas, saying, 
" Its grace, dignity, and pathos are impressive. 



332 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

and there is more in it of earnestness of soul 
than in anything I have seen from the pen of its 
author." Moreover, when the present writer 
asked the poet if he would copy a few lines of 
his own favourite poem for a friend, he forwarded 
the following stanzas — the poem so highly 
praised by Halleck and Poe: 

" The shadows lay along Broadway, — 

'Twas near the twilight-tide, — 
And slowly there a lady fair 

Was walking in her pride. 
Alone walked she; but viewlessly 

Walked spirits at her side. 

" Peace charmed the street beneath her feet, 

And Honour charmed the air; 
And all astir looked kind on her, 

And called her good as fair — 
For all God ever gave to her 

She kept with chary care. 

" She kept with care her beauties rare 

From lovers warm and true — 
For her heart was cold to all but gold. 

And the rich came not to woo — 
But honoured well are charms to sell 

If priests the selling do. 

" Now walking there was one more fair — 

A slight girl, lily-pale: 
And she had unseen company 

To make the spirit quail, — 
'Twixt Want and Scorn she walked forlorn. 

And nothing could avail. 



NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 333 

*' No mercy now can clear her brow 

For this world's peace to pray; 
For, as love's wild prayer dissolved in air, 

Her woman's heart gave way ! — 
But the sin forgiven by Christ in heaven. 

By man is cursed alway !" 

Said an accomplished contemporary writer: 
" Looking at the world through a pair of eyes of his 
own, Mr. Willis finds material w^here others virould see 
nothing. Indeed some of his greatest triumphs in this 
line have been in his rural sketches from Glenmary and 
Idlewild, continued with novelty and spirit long after 
most clever vi^riters would have cried out that straw and 
clay for their bricks had been utterly exhausted. That 
this invention has been pursued through broken health, 
with unremitting diligence, is another claim to consid- 
eration, which the public should be prompt to acknow- 
ledge. Under the most favourable circumstances, a 
continual career of newspaper literary toil is a painful 
drudgery. It weighs heavily on dull men of powerful 
constitutions. The world, then, should be thankful 
when the delicate fibres of the poet and man of genius 
are freely worked from day to day in its service." 

Another appreciative authority — Griswold — 
rendered the following truthful tribute: 

"The prose and poetry of Mr. Willis are alike dis- 
tinguished for exquisite finish and melody. His lan- 
guage is pure, varied, and rich, his imagination bril- 
liant, and his wit of the finest quality. Many of his 
descriptions of natural scenery are written pictures ; 
and no other American author has represented with 
equal vivacity and truth the manners of the age." 



EDGAR A. POE. 

1 809-1 849. 

The gifted and unfortunate child of genius 
Edgar Allan Poe, to some extent a maniac, not 
always sober or a responsible agent, was the son 
of David Poe and his wife Elizabeth, members 
of the theatrical profession. He was born in 
Boston, January 19, 1809, shortly before his pa- 
rents' departure for the South, where they both 
died, the mother being an object of charity when 
she lay on her death-bed in Richmond in Decem- 
ber, 1811. The poet's grandfather, who saw ac- 
tive service in the Revolutionary War, was a man 
of much stability of character, but his father, the 
actor did not inherit the trait, nor did it reappear 
in the old general's grandson. The player pos- 
sessed a fine personal appearance, but in his pro- 
fession his range was narrow, his manner always 
remained amateurish, and after repeated trials 
he sank at last, it is said, into insignificance. 

While a child Edgar was adopted by John 
Allan, a wealthy citizen of Richmond, who sent 
him to England to be educated. Poe afterward 
entered the University of Virginia, where he ex- 



s^^s.^ 




EDGAR A. FOE. 335 



celled in his studies, but was erelong expelled 
for gambling and other bad conduct. He was in 
the following year admitted into the Military 
Academy at West Point, from which he was also 
expelled at the expiration of ten months. Gen- 
eral Cullum, one of his classmates, tells me that 
his career as a cadet was disgraceful, adding, " I 
could discover no good in him beyond his ability 
to make verses." Mr. Allan again received Poe 
kindly, but was soon compelled for gross miscon- 
duct to turn him out of his house. 

Poe now entered upon a literary career, win- 
ning in 1833 two prizes of one hundred dollars 
each, offered by a Baltimore publislier. Tlirough 
the influence of John P. Kennedy, he obtained the 
editorship of the Soiithern Literary Messenger.'^ 

*The following letter in the writer's possession belongs 
to this period: 

" Richmond, Va., June 7, 1836. 

" Dear Sir : At the request of the proprietor of the 
Sotithern Literary Messenger, I take the liberty of address- 
ing you and of soliciting some little contribution to our 
journal. It is well known to us that you are continually 
pestered with similar applications; we are therefore ready 
to believe that we have little chance of success in this at- 
tempt to engage you in our interest — yet we owe it to the 
magazine to make the effort. One consideration will, we 
think, have its influence with you: our publication is the first 
successful literary attempt of Virginia, and has been now, 
for eighteen months, forcing its way unaided, and against 
a host of difficulties, into the public view and attention. 

"We wish to issue, if possible, a number of the Afessett- 



336 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

While in this position he married his cousin, Miss 
Virginia Clemm, with whom, having been dis- 
charged by the publisher, he removed to New 
York. Here he acquired a precarious living by 
writing for the magazines, and in 1838, published 
"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym." The 
following year he became editor of Burtons Gen- 
tleman s Magazine, in 1840 of Graham's Magazine, 
published in Philadelphia ; and in 1845, having 
returned to New York, he published his poem of 
"The Raven," which made him famous. He 
next became editor of Xh& Broadivay Journal, but 
was so poor that public appeals were made in his 
behalf by the newspapers. I have in my posses- 
sion a letter written at this time by Foe, which 
shows better than anything else could do his po- 
sition.* 



ger, consisting altogether of articles from our most distin- 
guished literati, and to this end we have received aid from 
a variety of high sources. To omit your name in the plan 
we purpose would be not only a negative sin on our part, 
but would be a positive injury to our cause. In this dilemma 
may we not trust to your good-nature for assistance? Send 
us any little scrap in your portfolio — it will be sure to an- 
swer our purpose fully, if it have the name of Halleck af- 
fixed. With the highest respect, 

" Your obedient servant, Edgar A. PoE. 

" Fitz-Greene Halleck, Esq/' ' 

* " New York, December i, 1845. 
" My dear Mr. Halleck : On the part of one or two 
P'^rsons who are much embittered against me, there is a 



EDGAR A. FOE. 337 

" I heard both of Poe's lectures in Richmond," says 
an anonymous writer in the Baltimore American. 
' They were the last he ever delivered. The admission 
was fifty cents, and the hall was crowded. On both 
occasions Poe was at his best. I never heard a voice 
that was so musical as his. It was full of the sweetest 
melody, and an incident of the evening showed how 
marked an impression it made. During the lecture he 
recited Hood's ' Bridge of Sighs.' A little boy about 
twelve years of age was sitting near me. He was list- 
ening intently, and before Poe had finished the poem 
he was in tears. Could there be any greater tribute to 
a speaker's power ? After the lecture Poe very mod- 
estly said, ' I have been requested to recite my own 
poem " The Raven." ' No one who heard this will 



deliberate attempt now being made to involve me in ruin by 
destroying the Broadway Journal. I could easily frustrate 
them but for my total want of money and of the necessary 
time in which to procure it; the knowledge of this has given 
my enemies the opportunities desired. In this emergency — 
without leisure to think whether I am acting improperly — 
I venture to appeal to you. The sum I need is one hundred 
dollars. If you can loan me for three months any portion 
of it, I will not be ungrateful. 

" Truly yotirs, Edgar A. Poe." 

Halleck responded promptly to the appeal of Poe, who, 
like so many of the rhyming fraternity that received aid 
from the generous poet, was never able to repay the loan. 
The mad poet McDonald Clarke often received aids and 
benevolences from the kind-hearted Halleck ; and upon 
more than one occasion said, " I would rather have a kind 
word from that noble man, Fitz-Greene Halleck, than from 
any Emperor." 



338 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ever forget the beauty and pathos with which this reci- 
tation was rendered. The audience was still as death, 
and as his weird, musical voice filled the hall, its effect 
was simply indescribable. It seems to me that I can 
yet hear that long, plaintive ' Nevermore.' At the 
second lecture a rather amusing incident took place. 
A well-known country physician who lived near Rich- 
mond was present with his family, He was afflicted 
with a certain kind of a hydrophobia [hydro7;za«Z(S:, 
rather !]. He could not look upon water without an 
insane desire to take a diink of it. That night a big 
stone pitcher had been placed on the platform from 
which Poe delivered his address. The lecture had pro- 
gressed, and everybody was listening with absorbed in- 
terest, when some mischief-maker pointed out to the 
doctor the stone pitcher. He wriggled and squirmed 
in his seat for two or three minutes, and at last, the 
thirst conquering, he arose from his chair, walked up 
the aisle with the thundering sound of his cowhide 
boots, poured out two glasses of water and drank them 
down, and then marched back as stiffly as he had ap- 
proached, while the audience suppressed its merriment 
as best it could. Poe paused for a minute or two in 
his address, but quietly resumed after the doctor had 
taken his drink." 

In 1849 Foe's wife died, when he went to Rich- 
mond, and there, erelong, formed an engagement 
with a lady of fortune; but before the day ap- 
pointed for their marriage Poe drank himself 
into a state of intoxication, and died of delirium 
tremens.^ His grave remained unmarked till 1875, 

* "No need to tell again the gloomy story of splendid power 



EDGAR A. FOE. 339 

when the school teachers of Baltimore placed a 
monument over it. On the 4th of May, 1885, the 
Poe Memorial was unveiled in the Poet's Cor- 
ner of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vi^hich 
stands in New York's noble Park. It was dedi- 
cated with appropriate ceremonies, in the pres- 
ence of a notable gathering of authors, actors, 
and artists.* It is a curious fact that Fitz- 
Greene Halleck chiefly through the efforts of his 
biographer, and Edgar A. Poe by the liberality 
of the members of the profession to which his 
parents belonged, secure their memorial statue 
and bas-reliefs in the Central Park before Bryant, 
Cooper, and Irving. But these others, it is now 
believed, will all be similarly honoured during the 
coming decade. Certainly Bryant will be, as the 
Century Club, of which he was for several years 
the President, has already secured almost the 
necessary sum to erect a suitable statue of him 
in the Central Park. 



eaten into and finally destroyed by the cancer of rampant ap- 
petite. In our own literature the names of Ben Jonson, 
Nat. Lee, Burns, and others at once occur to the student, ft 
Edgar Allan Poe represents the same tragic fatefulness of ge- 
nius in American letters." — Nineteenth Centtiry, June, 1885. 
* The tributes delivered on this interesting occasion are 
to be preserved in a handsomely printed pamphlet contain- 
ing the introductory address by Algernon S. Sullivan; the 
speech by Edwin Booth; the oration entitled " The Mission 
and the Errors of Genius," by the Rev. William Alger; and 
the well-written poem by William Winter. 



340 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Poe's works in prose and verse were collected 
after his death, and published with a memoir, by 
Dr. Griswold. Since then his life has been writ- 
ten by Mrs. Whitman, to whom he is said to have 
been engaged ; and by Richard Henry Stoddard, 
William F. Gill, John H. Ingram, and George E. 
Woodberry (1885), all of whom view his -charac- 
. ter more favourably than Griswold. 

I remember Poe in 1848, as a slight and erect 
person, with a pale, sad face, and brilliant black 
eyes, and I recollect Bryant replying to my ques- 
tion as to his opinion of Poe as a poet by quoting 
Lowell's lines : 

" There comes Poe with his Raven, like Barnaby Rudge, 
Three fifths of him genius, and two fifths sheer fudge ;" 

adding that the unfortunate writer's story was 
the saddest that had yet been told of an American 
author. The London Spectator denies that Poe 
was a poet ; if Lord Macaulay was one, then 
was Edgar A. Poe, but " neither can claim with 
justice that envied name." 
I " The Raven " is among the most familiar and 
popular poems in American literature. When 
first published forty years ago, it was reprinted in 
nearly all the newspapers of the land, and imme- 
diately attained a popularity perhaps unequalled 
in American poetry except in two instances — 
Halleck's " Marco Bozzaris " and Bret Harte's 
" Heathen Chinee." Of Poe's review of Halleck 



EDGAR A. POE. 341 

and Drake, Paulding says in a private letter, "I 
think it one of the finest specimens of criticism 
ever published in this country." A complete 
edition of Poe's works, limited to three hundred 
copies in eight volumes, containing a number of 
fine etchings, was published in New York in 1884. 
The same work in cheaper form has since been 
issued in six handsome volumes, with the addi- 
tion of an article, by Richard Henry Stoddard, 
on " The Genius of Poe," who, according to an 
eminent English authority, "at his best, stands 
alone among English writers — I say not at the 
top, but alone." 

It is a curious circumstance that of the authors 
of highest rank among the Knickerbocker school 
— Bryant and Cooper, Halleck and Irving, Pauld- 
ing and Poe — none received a collegiate educa- 
tion, while among the New England writers of 
celebrity, contemporary with the above, all, ex- 
cept Whittier, were college graduates. Bryant, 
it will be remembered, entered Williams College, 
but his father's lack of means compelled him to 
leave at the end of six months. 

Poe told my father of having somewhere fallen 
in with a man who thought the Bible, " Don 
Quixote,"* and Barlow's volume of novv-forgot- 



* According to Macaulay, "The best novel in the world, 
beyond all comparison." It is also, with the exception of 
the Bible, the book that is believed to have had the widest 
circulation. 



342 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

ten poems, the three greatest books ever written! 
(Apropos of this, Sir Henry Taylor in his auto- 
biography relates: "I once met in a railway- 
carriage, on my way to Bath, a man who thought 
that the three great books of the world were the 
Bible, 'Pickwick,' and 'Clark on Climate.'") 
On the same occasion — I think in 1846 — while 
speaking of "the little wasp of Twickenham," 
Poe quoted Swift's stanza: 

" In Pope I cannot read a line 
But with a sigh I wish it mine. 
When he can in one couplet fix 
More sense than I can do in six." 

Much good literary work was done by Poe 
and the other Knickerbocker writers, that is now 
entombed in the Democratic and Whig Reviews, 
in the Knickerbocker and Futnatn's, and other old 
New York magazines; also in Grahatn's, to which 
Poe devoted, for a period, all his time, receiving 
for his services a paltry eight hundred dollars 
per annum — scarcely the wages at the present 
time of a plumber or stone-mason. It may well 
be doubted if in Poe's literary career of a quar- 
ter of a century he was paid as much as Henry 
Ward Beecher received for his novel of " Nor- 
wood," although indeed Mr. Beecher is an ex- 
ception to nearly all rules. Still, the world is 
much changed since John Milton sold the lines 
of "Paradise Lost" for something less than a 
farthing each, taking his substantial pay in a 



EDGAR A. FOE. 343 

draft on posterity, payable after death with in- 
terest; since Samuel Johnson ate his dinners 
behind the screen in Carr's parlor, back of the 
shop, because he was too much out at the elbows 
to be presentable at a tradesman's table; since 
Oliver Goldsmith was penning an animated ro- 
mance on "Animated Nature," at just shillings 
enough per sheet to keep the bailiffs from his 
door; and since the tragic termination of 
Chatterton's too brief career. Scarcely less is 
the change in the literary world even since the 
days of the Knickerbocker writers, when the 
merest trifle was accepted as payment for Bry- 
ant's best lines, and when Poe received but a 
few dollars for " the greatest poem in the 
world." * 

Of American poets, Longfellow and Poe are 
probably the best known and most read in the 
Old World. I have seen their writings in many 
languages. Within the present year a new trans- 
lation of Poe has appeared in Paris. In Eng- 
land there have been numberless editions pub- 



* Joel Benton informs The Critic that a Southern author 
once told him that when Poe had written "The Raven" 
he went to him and read the poem with great enthusiasm 
and fine effect. When he had finished the reading Poe 
asked his friend what he thought of the poem. " I think," 
was the reply, "that it is uncommonly fine." "Fine'" 
cried Poe; " is that all you can say of it? It is the greatest 
poem ever written, sir — the greatest poem in the world !" 



344 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

lished of the poetical writings of Poe and Long- 
fellow, and many of Bryant, Lowell, and 
Whittier. The best-selling American poets in 
this country are in the order named— Longfel- 
low, Whittier, Bryant, and Poe; while their rank 
would be slightly reversed by the general judg- 
ment of the present time to the following order: 
Bryant, Whittier,* Longfellow, and Poe. Rare 
and peculiar singers like Lowell and Emerson 
are not to be ranked according to popularity, and 
we leave them out of any such comparison. 

The Saturday Review of July ii, 1885, dis- 
courses as follows of the telling of short stories: 

" In America, as we have had occasion to say more 
than once, the short story flourishes ; and nowhere else 
is the art and mystery of writing short stories better 
understood than in the United States. Poe and 
Hawthorne have written the fantastic and imaginative 
tale as few before; and Mr. Bret Harte has dealt with 
the real and the actual in a manner no less skilful. 
It is in the domain of the fantastic, however, that the 
American writer of short stories has been most suc- 
cessful. In the composition of the story of the kind 
once known as the ' Tale from Blackwood's ' certain 
American authors are unsurpassed and unsurpassable. 
Hawthorne with his severe beauty and his inexorable 
moral sense stands a little outside of this class ; but 



* John Bright places the Quaker poet before Bryant. He 
told the writer that he admired Whiltier's poems more than 
those of any other poet of the present century. 



EDGAR A. FOE. 345 

Poe with his originality and his logic stands at its 
head ; and not far behind Poe comes the Irish Ameri- 
can Fitz-James O'Brien, a new edition of whose most 
striking stories is now before us. As a manufacturer 
of cold creeps and as a maker of shivers, Fitz-James 
O'Brien was a worthy compeer of Poe and Lefanu." 

"Where the fault lay," says Foe's latest 
biogi-apher, 

" those who are bold to take the scales of justice may 
determine. The simple fact is that Poe, being highly 
endowed, well-bred, and educated better than his fel- 
lows, had more than once fair opportunities, brilliant 
prospects, and groups of benevolent, considerate, and 
active friends, and repeatedly forfeited propriety and 
even the homely honour of an honest name. He ate 
opium and drank liquor ; whatever was the cause, these 
were instruments of his ruin, and before half his years 
were run they had done their work with terrible 
thoroughness — he was a broken man. He died under 
circumstances of exceptional ugliness, misery, and pity, 
but not accidentally, for the end and the manner of it 
were clearly near and inevitable. He left a fame des- 
tined to long memory, and about it has grown up an 
idealized legend the elements of which are not far to 
seek. . . . On the roll of our literature Poe's name is 
inscribed with the few foremost, and in the world at 
large his genius is established as valid among all men. 
Except the wife who idolized him and the mother who 
cared for him, no one touched his heart in the years of 
his manhood, and at no time was love so strong in him 
as to rule his life ; as he was self-indulgent he was self- 
absorbed, and outside of his family no kind act, no 



346 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

noble affection, no generous sacrifice, is recorded of 
him. . . . Thus evermore remote from mankind ran 
the currents of his life and genius, interminably com- 
mingling, until their twin streams, glassing at last the 
desolation they had so often prophetically imagined, 
choked and stagnant in midway of their course, sank 
into the waste. The pitiful justice of Poe's fate, the 
dark immortality of his fame, were accomplished." 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 

1825-1878. 

Many interesting and pleasant memories are 
associated with the name of the youngest and last 
of the literary men to find a place in this volume, 
— one who has a just claim to what Halleck hap- 
pily called 

" That frailer thing than leaf or flower — 
A poet's immortality;" 

— whose brief and brilliant career, "the truly 
American story of a grand, cheerful, active, self- 
developing, self-sustaining life, remains as an en- 
during inheritance for all coming generations." 

Bayard Taylor, journalist, traveller, poet, critic, 
novelist, and lecturer, was born in Kennett 
Square, the name of a pleasant and pretty rural 
village in Chester County, Pennsylvania, January 
1 1, 1825. He was descended from a Quaker fam- 
ily, and breathed from the first a moral atmos- 
phere as pure and healthful as the mountain air 
in which his infancy was cradled. His entrance 
upon active life was as an apprentice in a printing 
office, where he began to learn the trade at the age 



348 BR YANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

of seventeen, receiving a new impulse to his im- 
perfect studies, and in some sense suppl3nng the 
defects of his early education. In Graham^s 
Magazine for May, 1843, there is a poem of his, 
entitled " Modern Greece," signed J. B. Taylor, 
and another in August, 1844, called "The Name- 
less Bird." In the following year he ceased to 
use his first name of James, and began to call him- 
self J. Bayard Taylor, which he had seldom done 
before, and under that arrangement of his pa- 
tronymic appeared in the same magazine as 
the author of "Night on the Deep" and "The 
Poet's Ambition." By this time the promise of 
his life had been recognized by several Philadel- 
phians, who kindly advanced the young writer 
the necessary means to enable him to visit Eu- 
rope, and he commenced his adventurous journey 
with knapsack and pilgrim staff. On the eve of 
departure for the Old World he published a vol- 
ume entitled "Ximena and other Poo-ms," a. bro- 
chure almost as rare as George Bancroft's poems, 
or the little volume of Judge Story's called " Rea- 
son and Other Poems," all of which are now lying 
on my library table. 

Soon after his return to his native land Taylor 
published the fruits of his foreign travel and study 
in "Views Afoot," a volume which has always 
been a favourite with the public, as it was with its 
author. After a brief course of literary activity 
in Pennsylvania, he shook off the dust of rural 



BA YARD TA YLOR. 349 

life from his feet, and early in 1848 appeared in 
New York. Here he became attached to the staff 
of the Tribune — a connection which continued 
for three decades. A year later he made a jour- 
ney to California, returning by way of Mexico. 
Before his departure in 185 1, on a protracted 
tour in the East, he had made the acquaintance 
of Longfellow, Whittier, and Holmes, and of the 
New York literati Bryant, Halleck, Willis, Poe, 
Morris, Park Benjamin, and the brothers Duy- 
ckinck, and had published two additional vol- 
umes of poems, also '* Eldorado; or, Adventures in 
the Path of Empire" — a peculiarly popular book. 
Soon after his return from his third tour, 
Taylor told me that he had travelled fifty thou- 
sand miles. His letters describing the journey 
appeared from time to time in the Tribune, and 
later in a series of uniform volumes. During 
all this period Taylor was becoming a proficient 
in many modern languages, of which the German 
was a favourite as early as his twenty-first year; 
and he had become a most popular lecturer, ap- 
pearing in all the principal cities and towns of 
the Northern, Middle, and Western States. He 
made a fourth tour in 1856-58, and in 1862-63 ^^'^ 
Secretary of Legation at St. Petersburg, acting 
for a time as charge d'affaires. In 1874 the poet- 
traveller revisited Egypt, attended the millennial 
celebration in Iceland, and on his return, during 
the same year, published an interesting account 



350 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



of his journeys to those distant lands. His latest 
and most ambitious poetical work, entitled 
"Prince Deukalion," appeared but a few days 
before his death. 

Taylor's accurate knowledge of foreign coun- 
tries was utilized by American publishers, who 
employed him to edit at one time a " Cyclopaedia 
of Modern Travel," at another an "Illustrated 
Library of Travel " in eight volumes. He edited 
with George Ripley a "Handbook of Litera- 
ture and Fine Arts," and was the author of 
numerous novels and short stories, perhaps the 
best of which is called "Can a Life Hide Itself?" 
The most ambitious attempt of Taylor's author- 
ship was his admirable metrical translation of 
Faust, issued in 1870-71. It is not speaking 
too strongly to pronounce it a marvel of poetic 
diction, and the best annotated edition of the 
greatest German poem yet written. Had he been 
spared a few years longer to the world, he would 
have enriched it with a life of Goethe — a task for 
which he was perhaps of all men best fitted. 
But, alas ! the book is unwritten. 

In his ever-active, busy career as a professional 
literary man Taylor produced, edited, and trans- 
lated, between the years 1844 and 1878, no less 
than fifty-two volumes,* a harvest surpassed by 
few whose labours have covered much longer pe- 



* See bibliographical list at close of this article. 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 351 



riods. Added to all this, there was much good 
work of various kinds in the New York Tribune, 
with which he was so long- identified, in contri- 
butions to the North American Review, and to the 
Atlantic, Harper s, and Scribner s MontJilies, and in 
the numerous lectures and addresses delivered 
during nearly three decades His last published 
writing, and also, I believe, his latest composition, 
was the poem tributary to Bryant, " Epicedium," 
which first appeared a few days after Taylor's 
death. 

What could more touchingly herald the tid- 
ings of Taylor's obsequies in a foreign land than 
this fifth stanza of his own " Epicedium" for the 
venerable poet who preceded him but so short 
a time on the last journey to that land from 
whence no returning envoy comes ? — 

"And last, ye Forms, with shrouded face, 

Hiding the features of your woe, 
That on the fresh sod of his burial-place 

Your myrtle, oak, and laurel throw, — 

Who are ye ? — whence your silent sorrow ? 
Strange is your aspect, alien your attire : 

Shall we, who knew him, borrow 
Your unknown speech for Grief's august desire ? 

Lo ! one, with lifted brow 
Says : ' Nay, he knew and loved me : I am Spain ! ' 

Another : ' I am Germany, 

Drawn sadly nearer now 
By songs of his and mine that make one strain, 
Though parted by the world-dividing sea ! ' 



352 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



And from the hills of Greece there blew 
A wind that shook the olives of Peru, 

Till all the world that knew, 
Or, knowing not, shall yet awake to know 
The sweet humanity that fused his song, — 

The haughty challenge unto Wrong, 
And for the trampled Truth his fearless blow. — 

Acknowledged his exalted mood 
Of faith achieved in song-born solitude. 

And give him high acclaim 
With those who followed Good, and found it Fame !" 

Notwithstanding the enormous amount of his 
intellectual labour, it was all well done, and in 
the highest degree of perfection of which he was 
capable. I spoke to him once of his literary- 
tasks, and remarked that it was often so urgent 
and hastily executed that I supposed he grew care- 
less and indifferent about its quality; but he an- 
swered in strangely strong terms, "No; in all this 
various work that you allude to, I am always as 
much in earnest to do my best as if salvation for 
all time depended upon it." 

"This is not the place," remarks the Tribitne, "for a 
critical estimate of his vi^ritings, but there is one con- 
spicuous quality in them whicli shone so brightly also 
in his personal character that we cannot pass it over 
here in silence. That quality is honesty. It is seen in 
the frank simplicity of liis style, the thoroughness of 
his workmanship, the clearness of his opinions, the 
fidelity with which he held through life to his chosen 
work, sparing no pains to pioduce the very best of 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 353 



which he was capable, however small the subject or 
trivial the reward. Nobody could read one of his 
books without feeling the influence of this virtue. No- 
body could know him without perceiving that this high 
literary merit was a reflex of an, earnest and simple 
nature. If there is a long remembrance for honest 
men, there is no less a long life for honest books. It 
is a golden lesson for authors and journalists, that in 
this instance literary honesty and personal uprightness 
have secured a brilliant success in life, and an enduring 
reputation." 

The American Government has during the 
present century appointed many men of letters 
to represent the Republic as ambassadors and 
consuls, who have shown that an accomplished 
man of letters may also be a skilful diplomat and 
thorough man of business — may, in fact, be the 
" Perfect Ambassador" of the old Spanish trea- 
tise. Beginning in 1810 with Barlow, the United 
States has since been represented abroad by 
Wheaton, Bancroft, Irving, Hawthorne, Motley, 
Marsh, Theodore S. Fay, Bigelow, Boker, Lowell, 
Howells, Bret Harte, and John Hay ; but it may 
be questioned whether any one of these were 
better fitted to represent our country at the post 
to which he was accredited than was Bayard 
Taylor when appointed by President Hayes to 
the Court of Berlin — an appointment which met 
with the unanimous approval of the press and 
people. The poet departed for his new field of 



354 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

labour in April, 1878, and ere the close of the 
year came the startling and unlooked-for intel- 
ligence of his death, on Thursday afternoon, 
December 19th. His funeral services were cele- 
brated in Berlin on the Sunday following, Dr. 
Joseph P. Thompson, formerly of New York, and 
Berthold Auerbach, the German poet, making 
appropriate and impressive addresses in the pres- 
ence of an immense concourse of people. 

Many meetings in honour of the poet's memory 
were held in New York and elsewhere. At one 
of these gatherings, which occurred in Tremont 
Temple, Boston, on the evening of January 15, 
1879, a rare combination was witnessed, which no 
one who had the good-fortune to be present will 
ev^er forget — namel}^, the following poem, written 
for the occasion by Henry W. Longfellow, and 
read by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who prefaced it 
with these well-chosen words: 

" I can hardly ask your attention to the lines which 
Mr. Longfellow has written and done me the honour of 
asking me to read, without a few words of introduction. 
The poem should have flowed from his own lips, in 
those winning accents, too rarely heard in any assem- 
bly, and never forgotten by those who have listened 
to them. But its tenderness and sweetness are such 
that no imperfection of utterance can quite spoil its 
harmonies. There are tones in the contralto of our 
beloved poet's melodious song that were born with it, 
and must die with it when its nmsic is silenced. A 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 355 

tribute from such a singer would honour the obsequies 
of the proudest sovereign, would add freshness to the 
laurels of the mightiest conqueror; but he who this 
evening has this tribute laid upon his head wore no 
crown save that which the sisterhood of the Muses 
wove for him. His victories were all peaceful ones, 
and there was no heartache after any one of them. 
His life was a journey through many lands of men, 
through realms of knowledge. He left his humble 
door in boyliood, poor, untrained, unknown, unherald- 
ed, unattended. He found himself once at least — as 1 
well remember his telling me — hungry and well-nigh 
penniless in the streets of a European city, feasting his 
eyes at a baker's window and tightening his girdle in 
place of a repast. 

" Once more he left his native land, now in the 
strength of manhood, known and honoured throughout 
the world of letters, the sovereignty of the Nation invest- 
ing him with its mantle of dignity, the laws of civiliza- 
tion surrounding him with the halo of their inviolable 
sanctity ; the boy who went forth to view the world 
afoot, on equal footing with the potentates and princes 
who by right of birth or by right of intellect swayed 
the destinies of great empires. He returns to us no 
more as we remember him; but his career, his exam- 
ple, the truly American story of a grand, cheerful, 
active, self-developing, self-sustaining life, remains as 



" Dead he lay among his books, 
The peace of God was in his looks. 
As the statues in ihe gloom 
Watch o'er Maximilian's tomb, 



356 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

So these volumes, from their shelves, 
Watch him, silent as themselves. 
Ah ! his hand will nevermore 
Turn their storied pages o'er ! 
Nevermore his lips repeat 
Songs of theirs, however sweet ! 
Let the lifeless body rest, 
He is gone who was its guest. 
Gone as travellers haste to leave 
An inn, nor tarry until eve ; 
Traveller, in what realms afar; 
In what planet, in what sffi.r; 
In what vast aerial space. 
Shines the light upon thy face ? 
In what gardens of delight 
Rest thy weary feet to-night ? 
Poet ! Thou whose latest verse 
Was a garland on thy hearse — 
Thou hast sung with organ tone, 
In Deukalion^ s life thine own. 
On the ruins of the past 
Blooms the perfect flower at last. 
Friend ! but yesterday the bells 
Rang for thee their loud farewells; 
And to-day they toll for thee, 
Lying dead beyond the sea: 
Lying dead among thy books; 
The peace of God in all thy looks," 

Memory recalls to me that I was a schoolboy 
on College Hill, Poughkeepsie, when Taylor first 
lectured in that town, and when I first saw him 
at a supper-party under my father's hospitable 
roof. He possessed what old Fuller quaintly 



B A YARD TAYLOR. 357 

called a "handsome man-case," and was, I think, 
the tallest of American poets, standing over six 
feet. Later in life he came to resemble a Teuton in 
look and bearing, and was greatly changed from 
my early recollections, when he possessed a 
slight figure and something of the Grecian type 
in head and face, as represented in an early por- 
trait of him, seated on the roof of a house in 
Damascus, painted by Thomas Hicks. There 
comes back to me the remembrance of many de- 
lightful meetings with Bayard Taylor during a 
period of more than a quarter of a century. One 
of the earliest occurred in a Western city. He 
appointed a rendezvous, and escaping from his 
lecture committee, he came to the trysting- 
place, bringing Maurice Strakosch, and intro- 
ducing him as a friend, and the composer of 
music to one of his (Taylor's) earliest poems- 
How many hours we sat and smoked and sang 
and told stories and talked music and art and 
poetry, over our good Rhenish wine, I will not 
venture to say. I was then fresh from my 
first visit to Europe, and was brimful of Mario, 
Grisi, and Lablache, of famous pictures and of 
literary celebrities, and so found great delight 
in the conversation of my companions and sen- 
iors. Some years later we had another joyous 
evening, dining together in company with Hal- 
leck. Taylor told us, referring to the short 
berths in the sleeping-cars, that his legs were too 



S8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



long for a lecturer, and that he should stop that 
business as soon as " Cedarcroft" was finished 
and paid for. If my memory serves me, he said 
that it was entirely built with the proceeds of 
his lecturing. Taylor related a little incident of 
railway travel in Germany. During his con- 
versation with a fellow-passenger, it soon be- 
came evident that they were both great travel- 
lers. At length, on inquiring each other's names, 
the fact was developed that each was well known 
to the other by reputation. They had some jun- 
keting together, and afterwards became warm 
friends, and I believe correspondents. Taylor's 
companion was Ferdinand Von Hockselter, the 
well-known German traveller and geologist, who 
died in Vienna in July, 1884, and whose writings 
have made his name as well known throughout 
the scientific world as that of Bayard Taylor is 
in the field of belles-lettres. This is the incident 
that gave rise to the story of a similar meeting 
with Humboldt, of whom it was untruthfully 
and maliciously asserted that he said, " Bayard 
Taylor has travelled more and seen less than any 
man I ever met !" 

The last time Mr. Taylor was in my house was 
in May, 1877, when he came to meet the divers 
dignitaries who honoured the unveiling of the 
statue of Fitz-Greene Halleck in the Central 
Park, Bryant and Boker and Curtis being among 
the other authors present, while the President 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 359 

and his Cabinet, with the General of the Army 
and the Vice-Admiral of the Navy, assembled 
to do especial grace to the memory of that 
poet. And the last time that I met him was at 
the Goethe Club reception given at Delmonico's, 
on the eve of his departure for Germany. The 
same Society that gave him such a brilliant send- 
off held a meeting in honour of his memory. 
Said one of the speakers: "The circles of our 
felicities make short arches ! Who shall question 
the wise axiom of Sir Thomas Browne, the stout 
old Knight of Norwich, when he thinks upon 
the bright' sunshine of the meeting of this Club 
but a few short months ago, and the sombre 
shadows which hang over us here to-night? 
Then, with song and dance and wine, we wished 
' God-speed ' to the prosperous poet on his way 
to an honourable post in a distant land; this 
evening we meet together again to mourn over 
his untimely death — the important literary un- 
dertaking of his life, as he deemed it, and of 
which he had so long dreamed as likely to for- 
ever link his name with that of Germany's great- 
est poet — the life of Goethe, his inag7ium opus, 
unfinished, if indeed begun. Full of honours if 
not df years, he passed to his rest; and he is pro- 
perly entitled to a place among the Dii Minores 
of modern poetry!" It may be added that a few 
months later his mortal remains were brought 
back from Berlin, and on Saturday, March 15, 



360 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

1879, were buried with suitable honours in Long- 
wood Cemetery, in his native county; 

" Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, 
Shrines to no code or creed confined — 
The Delphian vales, the Palestines, 
The Meccas of the mind." 

The aged parents of the poet survived him, and 
lived to celebrate the sixty-sixth anniversary of 
their marriage, which took place in the year 
1818. Joseph Taylor, his venerable father, who 
was born at Kennett Square in 1795, and had 
always resided there, died June 23, 1885, and two 
days later was buried by the side of his sons 
Bayard and Frederick — the latter the Benjamin 
of the flock, who fell on the field of Gettysburg. 
His mother Rebecca, at the age of eighty-six, is 
physically weak, but mentally bright and cheer- 
ful, and still, as ever, proud of her gifted son. 
Of their ten children, four are now (July, 1885) 
living. 

Among the many portraits of Mr. Taylor is 
an interesting and admirable photograph taken 
in 1869 by Brady at the time of the unveil- 
ing of the bust of Alexander Von Humboldt in 
the Central Park. Around a table, on which 
stands a model of the bust, are seated Mr. Bry- 
ant, Mr. Bancroft, and Mr. Taylor, while leaning 
on the back of Mr. Bancroft's chair stands 
George H. Boker. The lapse of a few years 
made striking changes in the appearance of all 



BA YARD TA YLOR. 361 

these authors. Mr, Bryant wore his hair much 
shorter then than was usual during his later 
years. The upper lip was shaven, and the whole 
expression was less venerable, while more practi- 
cal and severe. Mr. Bancroft looked like a rather 
thin and well-preserved Englishman, with white 
side-whiskers and smoothly-shaven chin and lips. 
Boker and Taylor were both without gray hairs, 
and the former especially had the look of an 
alert, active, handsome man of thirty-five or 
forty at the most. Mr. Taylor shows in the pic- 
ture at his very best — strong, earnest, and in the 
full prime of manl»y vigour. 

From Taylor's letters and notes and manu- 
script poems, of which I have in my garner a 
goodly sheaf, including the original of his ad- 
mirable address delivered at the unveiling of the 
Halleck monument at Guilford on the seventy- 
ninth anniversary of the poet's birth, I take a 
few extracts. The earliest is a boyish epistle ad- 
dressed to the poet Halleck, dated West Chester, 
Pa., August 16, 1842. He writes: 

" Wishing to make a collection of the autographs of 
distinguished American authors, I have taken the 
liberty of requesting yours, trusting that my admira- 
tion of your poems may serve as an excuse for my bold- 
ness, I have obtained the autographs of Irving, Whit- 
tier, and some others, and hope to be able to obtain 
yours. By sending it with the bearer 3'ou will confer a 
lasting favour on yours truly, J. Bayard Taylor." 



362 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Writing to a friend from Switzerland in 1856, 
tlie poet says: 

" Sitting by the blue rushing waters of the arrowy 
Rhone, with a vile Swiss cigar in my mouth, I thinlc of 
you and of that precious box whose contents have long 
since vanished into thin air. I smoked some of them 
in Stratford, and before Anne Hathaway 's cottage. I 
gave a few to Thackeray, to puff off the first chapters 
of his new novel ; one of them made a fast friend of a 
Gascon coachman in the Bois de Boulogne ; I flung 
the stump of another into the Rhine at the feet of 
the Loreley; and the last were consumed in my own 
beechen arbors in Germany, beside my fountain and 
my laughing fauns. The memory of those blue clouds 
brings tears into my eyes and sorrow into my soul." 

In a letter dated Cedarcroft, near Kennett 
Square, Pa., November 5, i860, Mr. Taylor writes: 

" I have a new book of poems coming out in a month 
or so — ' The Poet's Journal ' — some two hundred pages 
of new material. I have been spending the summer in 
this Arcadian retreat;" and adds, "Yours, about to vote 
for Lincoln." 

The most laconic note I ever received or saw 
was an acceptance from Taylor of an invitation 
to meet a few friends at dinner in November, 
i860. It consisted of the single word " Coming," 
written under a neatly executed pen-and-ink 
drawing of the dial of a clock, with the hands 
pointing to the appointed hour of seven. To 



BA YARD TA YLOR. 363 

this, as I remember, was nothing more added 
but "Bayard Taylor." A beautiful woman 
wanted it, and I weakly parted with the inter- 
esting artistic souvenir of my friend. 

Writing from Gotha in June, 1861, the poet 
says: 

" We are all in good health and spirits, and greatly 
cheered by the good news from home. Nothing re- 
conciles me to the absence at such a time, but the 
knowledge that everything is going on for the best, and 
that the Republic is more firmly established than ever. 
There was great rejoicing here all winter among the 
Royalists at the prospect of our dissolution; but now 
they don't say much, while the Liberals rejoice. I am 
proud to be an American at this time." 

Eight years later, writing from his Arcadian 
retreat near Kennett Square, the poet says: 

" I was in New York on Friday, and just as I was 
leaving the city your invitation reached me through 
Mr. Putnam. The time is short, and other engage- 
ments already undertaken still further curtail it; but I 
would like to render whatever honour I may to Hal- 
leck's memory, and do not feel justified in declining 
the invitation — at least before learning precisely what 
will be expected of me. I will say, then, that I could 
make an address of from twenty to thirty minutes in 
length, if that will suffice: that I should like to know 
in advance whether it is the corner-stone of the monu- 
ment that is to be laid, or the monument itself to be 
dedicated. This you do not state. Having, as you 



364 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

know, been out of the country, I am ignorant of what 
has already been done in the matter. Also tell me, is 
not this the first instance of a monument being erected 
to an American poet ? If you can give me a sketch in 
advance of the nature of the commemoration, and the 
committee will be satisfied with an address of half an 
hour in length, I will do my best to share in honouring 
the poet's memory." 

In a letter dated June 18, 1869, after thanking 
me for a book which I had sent him, he says: 

" I have been so busy with my ' Faust ' here m the 
quiet of the country, that I have fallen behmd the pace 
of contemporary literature, and have not before had an 
opportunity of reading the very entertaining volume 
... I prefer to make a short address, not only because 
the time is brief, but because I think long-winded ora- 
tions — however excellent the theme — have become an 
American vice. I can say everything needful in half 
an hour, and an audience cannot keep freshly atten- 
tive and receptive longer than that. . . . I think I shall 
go to New York on the evening of the 7th and thence 
to Guilford on the morning of the 8th, so that we can 
probably go in company, if that is also your plan." 

Writing from his country-seat May 10, 1870, 
Mr. Taylor remarks: 

" I was absent at Cornell University when your letter 
arrived, and now reply at the earliest leisure. I am 
quite willing to contribute to the proposed statue [of 
Halleck, in the Central Park, New York,] just as soon 
as I shall possess a small sum which is not appropriated 



BA YARD TA YLOR. 365 

in advance of ray receiving it. Since I am not inde- 
pendent of my copyrights, and all American books 
have such an unsatisfactory sale, except the kind which 
I should not write at any price, that I must consider 
my living household first and the dead afterwards. I 
do not possess a dollar that was not earned by my own 
personal labour ; and you will therefore kindly allow 
me to wait a few months, until I ascertain how much 
I may conscientiously spare." 

In May, 1872, he incidentally mentions: 

" I have never met either Bulwer or Carlyle. Tenny- 
son I know, — perhaps I should say have known; but 
something has occurred since I last saw him which 
makes my relations towards him very delicate. It is a 
purely private matter, but of such a nature that when 
I go to England this year I shall not visit Tennyson 
unless I first receive an mtimation that he will be glad 
to see me." 

I find also two pleasant little scraps which 
show how, in spite ot journalistic labours at 
home and preparations for his honoured duties 
abroad, he lectured to the last, how occupied he 
was with social and other engagements, and how 
— it gives me pleasure to remember — our friendly 
intercourse was maintained to the end: 

" Many thanks for your kind invitation," Taylor 
writes in November, 1877, " but as I am giving a course 
of Lowell Institute lectures in Boston on Wednesdays 
and Saturdays, and must be in Portland next Thurs- 



366 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

day, I must count the dinner among my lost pleasures." 
In the following March (he went to his German mis- 
sion in April) he writes from Kennett Square: "This 
address will show you why I cannot accept your allur- 
ing invitation. But in fact I have neither day nor 
evening disengaged up to the time of sailing." 

Having written to Taylor during the siege of 
Vicksburg that one of liis compositions was a 
great favourite in our camp, and was often de- 
claimed and sung by the men of my regiment, 
he expressed his pleasure, and sent me a copy of 
his spirited lyric, which presents a striking con- 
trast to the grave and high strain of his later 
poetical work. Taylor's "Song of the Camp" is 
a fitting companion for Hoffman's "Monterey" 
and Halleck's " Bozzaris," which are also con- 
tained in my manuscript collection. 

" ' Give us a song ! ' the soldiers cried, 
The outer trenches guarding. 
When the heated guns of the camps allied 
Grew weary of bombarding. 

"The dark Redan, in silent scoff. 

Lay, grim and threatening, under ; 
And the tawny mound of the Malakoff 
No longer belched its thunder. 

' There was a pause. A guardsman said, 
' We storm the forts to-morrow ! 
Sing while we may: another day 
Will bring enough of sorrow.' 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 367 

"They lay along the battery's side, 
Below the smoking cannon : 
Brave hearts, from Severn and from Clyde, 
And from the banks of Shannon. 

" They sang of love, and not of fame ; 
Forgot was Britain's glory : 
Each heart recalled a different name. 
But all sang ' Annie Laurie.' 

" Voice after voice caught up the song. 
Until its tender passion 
Rose like an anthem, rich and strong. 
Their battle-eve confession. 

" Dear girl, her name he dared not speak, 
But, as the song grew louder, 
Something upon the soldier's cheek 
Washed off the stains of powder. 

"Beyond the darkening ocean burned 

The bloody sunset's embers. 

While the Crimean valleys learned 

How English love remembers. 

" And once again a fire of hell 

Rained on the Russian quarters. 
With scream of shot, and burst of shell, 
And bellowing of the mortars! 

" And Irish Nora's eyes are dim 
For a singer, dumb and gory : 
And English Mary mourns for him 
Who sang of 'Annie Laurie.' 

"Sleep, soldiers! still in honoured rest 
Your truth and valour wearingr 
The bravest are the tenderest — 
The loving are the daring." 



368 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Cowper used to say that he never knew a poet 
that was not thriftless. Certainly this is not true 
of Taylor, nor of any of his literary brothers in- 
cluded in our Gallery (nor, so far as I am aware, of 
any prominent American poet) except Poe. It 
is thought that the many-sided man injured him- 
self by late hours and overwork, believing that 
his strong constitution was incapable of being 
injured by either, or by both combined. Cer- 
tain it is that his writings are a monument of 
unflinching toil and industry, and many of 
them full of the "best thoughts in the best lan- 
guage." No man knew better than Bayard Tay- 
lor that " nothing would come to him in his 
sleep," to borrow the words of Goethe ; and it is 
possible that he frequently deprived himself of 
necessary rest. From year to year he toiled and 
sang unceasingly, overcoming all obstacles and 
receiving no honours or rewards to which down- 
right hard work did not fully entitle him. 

" He could do more, I think," says his friend Hay, " in 
a short space of time than any other man I ever knew. 
He would, if required, write a whole page of The Tribime 
in a single day. His review of Dr. Schliemann's first 
book, written from advanced sheets, was remarkably 
full, and gave such a good idea of the work that it was 
almost unnecessary to read the book itself. He had a 
peculiar gift at condensing matter and still retaining 
every point which the author made. Perhaps his great- 
est feat in this line was achieved upon Victor Hugo's 



BAYARD TAYLOR. ' 369 

poems. The}' arrived in New York on a certain morn- 
ing, and the next morning he published nearly a page 
review of the work, with several columns of metrical 
translation, done so finely that all the original vigour 
and spirit was retained." 

There was nothing of Xho. genus irritabile vatum 
about Taylor, or what an English writer has de- 
scribed in still more forcible words, 

"The jealous, waspish, wrong-head, rhyming race." 

On the contrary, he was a simple-hearted, gener- 
ous, and genial gentleman, with troops of friends 
at home and abroad. The grasp of his strong 
hand was warm and true, with a gentle manner 
and sweet smile which was very winning. Five 
years after his death his name and his fame were 
frequently and appreciatively mentioned to me in 
England, in all of whose great libraries I found 
some of his writings, and always his "Faust." 
Throughout Germany I met with many of his ad- 
mirers, and not a few of his works both in the 
originals and in translations. The old Librarian 
of the valuable Weimar Collection, who knew 
Goethe and whose father was intimate witli 
Schiller, brought out many volumes once the 
property of those famous men, and then showed 
me a copy of Taylor's " Faust," presented by the 
translator to his friend the Grand Duke of Saxe- 
Weimar, accompanied by many kindly words of 
commendation of the good work of the American 



370 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



poet, whom he knew personally, and whose un- 
timely death he deeply lamented. 

In Berlin I heard many words of kindness 
spoken of Taylor by both high and low, and 
learned many incidents of his too brief official 
career there. The aged Emperor, who was at 
Waterloo, warmly thanked him for making his 
presentation address in German instead of the 
conventional French (or as it sometimes hap- 
pens with our ambassadors, in poor English). 
Bismarck received the poet in the garden of 
his palace on the Wilhelmstrasse, and walked 
with him under the grand old oaks and elms and 
lindens, talking on literary topics, and showing 
a surprising intimacy with the new Minister's own 
productions. No less deliglited was Taylor on 
meeting Disraeli during the Congress which 
brought so many celebrities to Berlin. Taking 
him warmly by the hand, the illustrious English- 
man said, "Taylor, Bayard Taylor — how glad I 
am to see the man I have so long known." 

Of opinions from the living I will not speak, 
but simply allude to two venerable writers who 
thought very highly of Bayard Taylor's literary 
attainments — my old friends Captain Trelawney, 
the biographer of Byron and Shelley, and the 
poet Richard Henry Home, the contemporary 
of Keats, Southey, and Sir Walter Scott, and the 
author of the well-known line, 

" 'Tis always morning somewhere in the world," 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 371 

inscribed on the sun-dial at tlie head of the fa- 
mous Brighton Pier, and so made familiar to 
many thousands who never read his writings. 
Says a London literary journal: 

" Aside from his official relations, Bayard Taylor was 
accredited in a peculiar degree to the German people. 
In this sense he was a worthy successor of Mr. Ban- 
croft. If the historian belonged rather to the scholars 
and professors, Mr. Taylor had long been adopted into 
the fraternity of poets and wits and purely literary 
people of Germany, and they welcomed him hither in 
his new character as one of themselves. The Minister's 
knowledge of the language was exact and flexible. He 
had not learned it like a philologist, and perhaps never 
took a German grammar in his hands ; but he had a 
literary acquaintance, learned through the study of all 
the masters, and a practical familiarity atquired through 
years of life in the country, and the most intimate in- 
tercourse with the best people. He spoke German 
fluently on the platform without preparation, and suc- 
cessfully wooed the German muse with his pen. And 
he had such a complete consciousness of his power over 
the language, that he never needed to display it, but 
would cheerfully submit to be bored by those ambitious 
Teutons who essayed their mysterious English in his 
presence." 

In September, 1884, there appeared from the 
loving pen of his widow an admirable memoir 
of Bayard Taylor, in which the progressive story 
of his busy literary life is exceedingly well and 
wisely told. But it does not leave the impres- 



372 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

sion of a happy half-century of existence — rather 
the reverse. The reason, as shown in the biog- 
raphy,* is twofold — his lofty ambition as a poet, 
which was not gratified by the consciousness of 
adequate recognition, and the necessity of keep- 
ing the pot boiling, as he once said to the writer, 
by incessant literary drudgery with his pen. 
"What we all need," he wrote, — and the words in 
their application to himself are full of pathos, — 
" is not to live without work, but to be free from 
worry." 

Writing in 1873 from Gotha, to a friend who 
had congratulated him on his success in life, the 
poet replied in the saddest letter that he ever 
wrote : 

" You exaggerate what you consider my successes. 
. . . From 1854 to 1862 or thereabouts, I had a good 
deal of popularity of a cheap ephemeral sort. It began 
to decline at the time when I began to see the better 
and truer work in store for me, and I let it go, feeling 
that I must begin anew and acquire a second reputa- 
tion of a different kind. For the last five years I have 
been engaged in this struggle, which is not yet over. 
... I am giving the best blood of my life to my 
labours, seeing them gradually recognized by the few 
and the best, it is true, but they are still unknown to 
the public, and my new claims are fiercely resisted by 



* "Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor," edited by Marie 
Hansen Taylor and Horace E. Scudder. 2 vols., i2mo. 
Houghton, MifHin & Co , New York and Boston, 1884. 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 3/^ 



the majority of the newspaper writers in the United 
States. . . . ' Lars ' is the first poem of mine ever pub- 
lished in England, and I hoped for some impartial 
recognition there. Well, the sale is just io8 copies ! 
My translation of 'Faust' is at last accepted in Eng- 
land, Germany, and America as much the best. It 
cost me years of the severest labour, and has not yet 
returned me $500. The ' Masque of the Gods ' has not 
paid expenses. The sale of my former volumes of 
travel has fallen almost to nothing. . . . For two years 
past I have had no income of any sort from property or 
copyright, and am living partly on my capital and 
partly mechanical labour of the mind. ... I am weary, 
indeed, completely fagged out, and to read what you 
say of my success sounds almost like irony." 

When it was announced to Taylor that he vi^as 
to be sent as Minister to Germany he rejoiced 
exceedingly in the appointment for many reasons, 
but chiefly because it was made in acknowledg- 
ment, not of political services, but of his literary 
attainments and position, 

" It is something so amazing," he wrote to the poet 
Paul H. Hayne, " that I am more bewildered and em- 
barrassed than proud of my honours. If you knew how 
many years I have steadily worked, devoted to a high 
ideal, which no one seemed to recognize, and sneered 
at by cheap critics as a mere interloper in literature, 
you would understand how incredible this change 
seems to me. The great comfort is this : I was right 
in my instinct. The world does appreciate earnest en- 
deavour, in the end. I have always had faith, and I 



374 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

have learned to overlook opposition, disparagement 
misconception of my best work, believing that the day 
of justification would come. But what now comes to 
me seems too much. I can only accept it as a balance 
against me, to be met by still better work in the 
future." 

In that last line rings the true metal of Bayard 
Taylor, who believed in the words of the inspir- 
ing Goethe, " Wir heissen euch hoffen,'' and that, 
as brave old Sam Johnson said, " Useful dili- 
gence will at last prevail." 

Taylor's Published Works. 

Ximena; or, The Battle of the Sierra Morena, and Other 
Poems. 1844. 

Views Afoot ; or, Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff. 
1846. 32d ed. 1878. 

Rhymes of Travel, Ballads, and Other Poems. 2d ed. 
1848. 

The American Legend. 1850. 

Eldorado ; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. 2d ed. 
1850. 14th ed. 1877. 

Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs. 185 1 

Poems and Ballads. 1854. 

A Journey to Central Africa. 1854. 

The Lands of the Saracens. 1854. 

Poems of Home and Travel. 1855. 

Poems of the Orient. 1855. 

A Visit to India, China, and Japan. 1855, 

Cyclopaedia of Modern Travel. 1856. 

Northern Travel : Summer and Winter Pictures of Swe- 
den, Denmark, and Lapland. 1858. 

Travels in Greece and Russia. 1859. 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 375 

At Home and Abroad. 2 vols. 1859, 1862. 

The Poet's Journal. 1862. 

Hannah Thurston. 1863. ' 

John Godfrey's Fortunes. 1864. 

Poems. 1865. 

The Picture of St. John. 1866. 

The Story of Kennett. 1866. 

Colorado : a Summer Trip. 1867. 

Byways of Europe. 1869. 

Ballad of Abraham Lincoln. i86g. 

Joseph and his Friend. 1870. 

Beauty and the Beast ; and Tales of Home. 1872. 

Travels in Arabia. 1872. 

The Masque of the Gods. 1872. 

Lars ; a Pastoral of Norway. 1873. 

Egypt and Iceland. 1874. 

School History of Germany, to 1871. 1874, 

The Prophet : a Tragedy. 1874. 

Home Pastorals, Ballads, and Lyrics. 1875. 

The Boys of Other Countries. 1876. 

National Ode at Philadelphia, 4th of July, 1876. 

The Echo Club and Other Literary Diversions. 1876. 

Prince Deukalion: a Lyrical Drama. 1878. 

Editor [with George Ripley]. Handbook of Literature 
and Fine Arts. 1852. 

Editor. Cyclopaedia of Modern Travel. 1856. 

Editor. Tegner, E. Frithiof's Saga. 1867. 

Editor. Auerbach. Villa on the Rhine. 2 vols. 

Translator. Goethe. 2 vols. 1870-71. 

Editor. Illustrated Library of Travel, etc. 8 vols. 1871- 
74, viz. : Japan ; Arabia ; South Africa ; Gumming (W. G.), 
Wild Men and Wild Beasts ; Central Asia ; Central Africa ; 
Bacon (G. B.), Siam ; Wonders of the Yellowstone, The 
Literary World. 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERA- 
TURE. 

What has been occasionally designated as 
the Knickerbocker Literature may be defined as 
the poetry and prose produced in New York 
City and State during the first half of the nine- 
teenth century, by Bryant, Cooper, Drake, Hal- 
leck, Hoffman, Irving, Morris, Paulding, Ver- 
planck, Willis, Woodworth, and others, as 
essayists, historians, novelists, and poets. Of 
the chief of these authors — almost all of whom 
long ago ceased from their literary labours — and 
of their writings, we have already given some 
account : it remains now to make some notes of 
interest concerning their less prominent fellows. 

The pioneers among the Knickerbocker auth- 
ors were the friends and literary partners, James 
K. Paulding and Washington Irving, who were 
joint writers of "Salmagundi" which appeared 
in fortnightly numbers and was continued 
through twenty parts. In "Salmagundi" the 
humours of the day are hit off in a collection of 
sunny and good-natured essays, and in so agree- 
able a manner that the work is still read with 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 'h'J'J 

interest after the lapse of seventy-six years. 
The few poems which appear on its pages were 
written by William Irving, an elder brother of 
Washington, and later the brother-in-law of 
Paulding, whose sister he had married. " Cock- 
loft Hall," which figures conspicuously in " Sal- 
magundi," is a veritable mansion on the Passaic 
River, near Newark, and was so christened by 
Mr. Irving. It is still in a good state of preser- 
vation. Nearly fourscore years ago it was a 
favorite resort of its young owner, Gouverneur 
Kemble, Paulding, the Irvings, Captain Porter, 
father of the present admiral, Henry Brevoort, 
and other merry young blades who made the 
old mansion gay with their fun and frolic. 
Kemble, in a note to the writer, dated February 
6, 1872, says: "The old place near Newark, in 
New Jersey, christened 'Cockloft Hall' by Mr. 
Irving, was called Mount Pleasant. The house 
was built by Nicholas Gouverneur, grandson of 
Abraham Gouverneur, who married the daugh- 
ter of Governor Jacob Leisler." 

Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842), who maybe 
called a single-song poet, was the youngest son 
of one of the patriot band that achieved our 
independence. He removed from Massachusetts, 
his native State, after serving an apprenticeship 
as a printer in Boston, and established, in 1812, 
a weekly newspaper in New York, entitled The 



3/8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



War, to the columns of which he contributed 
numerous patriotic songs and odes on the vic- 
tories won on land and sea by the Americans. 
These and other poetical pieces were published 
in a volume in 1818, and a second collection, in- 
cluding his most popular poem, "The Old Oaken 
Bucket," appeared in 1826. At this time Wood- 
worth was one of the notable citizens of New 
York, and his house in Duane Street was the 
resort of the leading literary men of the day, 
such as Cooper, Halleck, and Verplanck. The 
second-named of these writers, it will be remem- 
bered, addressed one of his beautiful composi- 
tions to Miss Wood worth as a " Poet's Daughter." 
In 1823, Woodworth with George P. Morris es- 
tablished the New York Mirror. In this very 
popular literary journal there appeared in 1827, 
after his retirement, a fine steel engraving con- 
taining a group of portraits of the most popular 
American poets of that period, among which 
appear the amiable features of Samuel Wood- 
worth, while among the others are James G. 
Brooks, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Washington Ir- 
ving, James G. Percival, John Pierpont, Edward 
C. Pinckney, and Charles Sprague, the last sur- 
vivors of this group. 

Woodworth was also the author of a History 
of the War of 1812-14, and of several dramatic 
pieces, chiefly operatic. Of these, perhaps, the 
most popular is "The Forest Rose." In 1861 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 379 

his son edited and issued an edition of his 
father's poetical writings, accompanied by a 
memoir from the pen of George P. Morris. 
Samuel Woodworth was a man of irreproach- 
able character, and notwithstanding the want 
of success that invariably attended his various 
literary enterprises, he was universally esteemed 
an honourable and upright citizen. His fame will 
rest chiefly on his fine lyric of " The Old Oaken 
Bucket," which has, says Marsh,* embalmed in 
undying verse so many of the most touching 
recollections of rural childhood, and will pre- 
serve the more poetic form oaken, together with 
the memory of the almost obsolete implement it 
celebrates, through all dialectic changes as long 
as English shall be a spoken language. 

Woodworth's ballad owes its birth to a simple 
incident. While drinking wine with a few friends 
at Mallory's, a well-known New York hotel sixty 
years ago, the poet pronounced some old fruity 
port superior to anything he had ever tasted. 
" No," said one of the party, "you are mistaken: 
there was one thing which in both our estima- 
tions far surpassed this as a beverage." "What 
was that ?" asked Woodworth. " The draught 
of pure, fresh spring water, that we used to 
drink from the old oake?i bucket that hum in the 



* "Lectures on the English Language," by Hon. George 
P. Marsh. New York, i860. 



380 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

well, after our return from the labours of the 
field on a hot sultry day in summer." The tear- 
drop glistened for a moment in the poet's eye. 
" True — true !" he replied; and soon after return- 
ing to his office he composed in less than half 
an hour the beautiful ballad of the " Old Oaken 
Bucket." 

John Pierpont, for two-score years a constant 
contributor to New York periodicals, was a na- 
tive of Litchfield, Conn. (1785-1866), and a lin- 
eal descendant of the Rev. James Pierpont, the 
second minister of New Haven. Entering Yale 
College, he completed his course in 1804, passing 
the succeeding four years in South Carolina as 
a tutor in the family of Colonel William Allston, 
a kinsman of the well-known poet and painter 
Washington Allston (i 799-1843). Returning to 
the North, Pierpont studied law, and practised 
for a time at Newburyport; but his health re- 
quiring more active employment, he abandoned 
the profession to engage in mercantile pursuits, 
first in Boston, and afterwards in Baltimore, in 
which city, in 1816, he published his "Airs of 
Palestine." The volume was twice reprinted, 
and made him favourably known as a poet. 
Abandoning business he studied theology, and 
in 1819 he was ordained pastor of a Unitarian 
Church in Boston. He passed a portion of 
1835-36 in Europe, and in 1840 issued an enlarged 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 38 1 

edition of his poetical writings. A most zealous 
reformer, Pierpont powerfully advocated the 
anti-slavery and temperance causes ; was a can- 
didate for Governor of Massachusetts, and in 
1850 of the Free-soil Party for Congress. When 
the Rebellion broke out, although seventy- six 
years of age, the energetic old poet went to the 
war as chaplain of the Twenty-second Massachu- 
setts Infantry, and was afterwards employed in 
the Treasury Department at Washington in com- 
piling in one volume " A Digest of the Decisions 
and Instructions of the Treasury Department to 
Collectors of Customs," from fifty-four folio vol- 
umes. Mr. Chase said, " I regard this labour as 
a monument of talent and industry, and one of 
inestimable value in conducting the correspond- 
ence of the Department." In addition to his 
numerous poems, Pierpont published many ad- 
dresses and discourses, and edited a popular series 
of school-readers. A short time before his death, 
at Medford, in his native State, the writer spent 
an evening with the well-preserved old poet and 
his second wife, and found him at fourscore 
still in the enjoyment of vigorous health and 
strength. When I asked Pierpont which he pre- 
ferred among his many poems, he replied, " The 
ojie called ' Passing Away ' " — which is certainly 
among the sweetest in American literature ; I 
once heard it read by the elder Vandenhoff, the 



382 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



" passing away" sounding like the echoes of a 
distant bell. It begins: 

" Was it the chime of a tiny bell 

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear — 
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell 
That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear?" 

"Warren's Address" was also a favourite with 
the genial old poet, and one of which he very 
frequently made manuscript copies for his 
friends. 

" Stand ! the ground's your own, my braves !" 

This reminiscence of our Revolutionary era is 
almost as familiar to the average American 
school-boy as Halleck's " Marco Bozzaris." 

Among the poet's papers, after death, was 
found a half-sheet filed and addressed in the 
handwriting of Charles Sprague (1791-1872), 
then cashier of a Boston bank, inclosing a prom- 
issory note for fifteen hundred dollars, signed by 
Pierpont and indorsed by a Boston publisher. 
On the face of the note was written, also by 
Sprague, the following couplet : 

" Behold a wonder seldom seen by men — 
Lines of no value from John Pierpont's pen." 

His many friends will be pleased to learn that 
a Memorial Volume, containing a biography of 
the distinguished preacher, poet, and philanthro- 
pist, is now (July, 1885) in preparation. 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 3S3 

GuLiAN Crommelin Verplanck (i 786-1870), 
an accomplished author, and for sixty years 
prominent in the highest literary and social cir- 
cles of his native city, was born in Wall Street, 
New York, and as his name indicates, was de- 
scended from the founders of the Empire State. 
He graduate(i at Columbia College in 1801, and 
after studying law, he spent several years of study 
and travel in Europe. Returning to New York 
he entered upon a literary career, and in 1821 
accepted the Professorship of the Evidences of 
Christianity in the Episcopal Seminary of New 
York. In 1825 he was elected to Congress, where 
he held his seat for eight years. He was the first 
President of the State Board of Emigration, an 
office which he retained till his death in his native 
city at the age of eighty-four ; and for nearly 
half a century he was Vice-Chancellor of the 
State University. He was for forty years a 
member of the vestry of Trinity Church, and 
occupied many other posts of trust and use- 
fulness in his native city and State. 

More than three-score years ago Verplanck 
began his literary life by the delivery in New 
York of the first of a series of scholarly ad- 
dresses on which his fame is mainly founded. 
As early, however, as 1814 he wrote a dozen or 
more incisive articles against the war with Eng- 
land then going on ; followed by a volume of 
essays on the " Nature and Uses of the Various 



384 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Evidences of Revealed Religion." In 1827, in 
connection with William C. Bryant and Robert 
C. Sands, he engaged in the production of an 
annual entitled "The Talisman,'' which was il- 
lustrated with engravings on steel from paint- 
ings by American artists. Three annual volumes 
of the "Talisman" were issued ^sior the years 
1828, 1829, and 1830, to all of which Verplanck 
was a contributor. He was a somewhat indolent 
man, and his mode of composition was certainly 
singular. Nearly all his contributions to the 
" Talisman" were written in Sands's library, 
where, seated in a chair with his arm resting on 
another, while his feet were supported by a third, 
he dictated to one of his confreres as rapidly as 
they could write.* All the articles and poems in 
the second of the series were written by Ver- 
planck, Sands, or Bryant, with three exceptions. 
" The Little Old Man of Coblentz" is from the 
pen of John Inman, a brother of Henry, the 
painter ; " Red Jacket" was written by Halleck ; 
and the sonnet beginning 

" Beautiful streamlet by my dwelling side" 

the production of John Howard Bryant, an 
' inois farmer, and the only surviving brother of 

* This proceeding is suggestive of the statement of a 
member of the literary firm of Erckmann-Chatriaii, who says, 
" Since we have worked together Chatrian, has not once put 
pen to paper." 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 385 



William Cullen. The preface to the volumes 
signed " Francis Herbert" is the joint produc- 
tion of the three literary partners. 

In 1847 Verplanck completed his scholarly- 
illustrated edition of Shakespeare, which was 
issued by the Harpers in three handsome royal 
octavo volumes. His labours consisted in a 
thorough revision of the text, -which he did 
with independence as well as carefulness. An 
excellent feature of his work is the pointing out 
of colloquial expressions, often called American- 
isms, which, obsolete in England, are yet pre- 
served in this country. He gives original pref- 
aces to the plays, characterized by the ease and 
finish common to all his compositions. This 
ripe scholar, able writer, wise statesman, and 
highly-gifted conversationalist divided his time 
between the city of New York and his ancestral 
home at Fishkill, on the Hudson, a well-pre- 
served old mansion in which was founded the 
Society of the Cincinnati, an order established 
in 1783 by surviving officers in our Revolution- 
ary army, '' to perpetuate their friendship and to 
raise a fund for relieving the widows and ophans 
of those who had fallen during the war." Wash- 
ington, Hamilton, the Pinckneys, Lafayette, and 
many other distinguished men were of its early 
membership. It still exists, and preserves its his- 
torical and social characteristics ; while the well- 
known Tammany Society, originated to oppose 



386 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



the possible aristocratic tendencies of the Cincin- 
nati, has become the synonym of factional local 
politics in the city of New York. 

In conversation with the writer, Bryant re- 
marked: "As a young man, Verplanck took no 
part in the Cockloft Hall and other frolics of 
his friends Irving, Paulding, and Kemble; but, 
on the contrary, he was held up by the elder 
men of the period as an example of steady, stu- 
dious, and spotless youth." To the Analectic 
Magazine, edited by Irving, he contributed arti- 
cles on Commodore Stewart, General Scott, 
Barlow the poet and diplomat, and other distin- 
guished Americans. Verplanck married, in 1811, 
Mary Eliza Fenno, the aunt of Matilda and 
Charles Fenno Hoffman, who bore him two sons, 
of whom one survives, and died in Paris in 1817. 
"She sleeps," says Bryant, "in the cemetery of 
Perela Chaise, among monuments inscribed with 
words strange to her childhood, while he, after 
surviving her for sixty-three years, yet never 
forgetting her, is laid in the ancestral burying- 
ground at Fishkill, and the Atlantic ocean rolls 
between their graves." 

Mr. Verplanck was a frequent guest in my 
father's family, and in later years I constantly 
met him at the New York Society Library and 
elsewhere. Among the last meetings with him 
that I recall was an evening at the Century 
Club, when he talked for several hours almost 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 387 

uninterruptedly, although his friends Bryant 
and Samuel B. Ruggles were of the party of 
half a dozen delighted listeners. Art, literature, 
the drama, and old New Yorkers were among 
the topics of his talk. A few months after his 
death a brochure appeared, entitled " Proceedings 
of the Century Association in Honour of the 
Memory of Gulian C. Verplanck;" and in May, 
187 1, Bryant delivered an admirable address on 
his old friend before the New York Historical 
Society. 

James Abraham Hillhouse, a native of Sach- 
em's Head, near New Haven (1789-1841), grad- 
uated at Yale College in 1808, and spent many 
of his early years in New York, engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits. On his return from a visit to 
Europe he married and retired to Sachem's 
Head,, where he devoted himself to literature 
rather as an amusement than an occupation. 
His first poem, entitled " The Judgement," 
appeared in New York in 181 2. " Percy's 
Masque," the successful attempt of one of the 
Percys to recover his ancestral home of Alnwick 
Castle, was issued in London in 1820, and re- 
issued in New York the same year. In 1824 Hill- 
house published the sacred drama of '' Hadad," 
and in 1839 a complete edition in two volumes 
of his poetical writings. He was also the author 
of numerous addresses and discourses delivered 



388 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

on various occasions. Macaulay's father spoke 
of him as "the most accomplished young man 
with whom he was acquainted;" and Halleck 
wrote of him in "The Recorder" (1828): 

" Hillhouse, whose music, like his themes, 
Lifts earth to heaven; whose poet-dreams 
Are pure and holy as the hymn 
Echoed from harp of seraphim. 
By bards that drank at Zion's fountain. 

When glory, peace, and hope was hers. 
And beautiful upon her mountain 

The feet of angel messengers." 

Hillhouse was a man of spotless character, fine 
personal appearance, and, as a poet, united 
vigour of thought to a brilliant fancy, an ex- 
quisite taste, and a correct and elegant diction. 

John Wakefield Francis was born in New 
York, where he died at the age of seventy-two 
(1789-1861). He was a graduate of Columbia 
College, and in i860 received from the venerable 
institution the degree of LL.D. In his youth 
he was employed as a printer, but in 1807 began 
the study of medicine under Dr. David Hosack, 
and was his partner until 1820. They together 
edited the American Medical and Philosophical 
Register. In 1814 Francis visited Europe, and 
was a pupil of the celebrated Abernethy. While 
residing in Edinburgh he met many of the liter- 
ary magnates of that city, of whom the genial doc- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 389 

tor was ever after delighted to speak. He became 
one of the best known physicians in New York, 
filling many professorships in medical institu- 
tions. He was a constant contributor to medical 
journals, and wrote many sketches of the distin- 
guished men of his time. Few literary, scien- 
tific, or theatrical notabilities came to New York 
between the years 1820 and i860 without becom- 
ing acquainted with Francis, and being enter- 
tained at his hospitable mansion in Bond Street. 
The purely literary work by which he is most 
likely to be remembered is his " Old New York; 
or. Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years." 
" The Doctor," wrote Cozzens, " is one of our old 
Knickerbockers. His big, bushy head is as 
familiar as the City Hall. He belongs to the 
'■ God bless you, my dear young friend ' school. 
He is as full of knowledge as an ^^^ is full of 
meat. He knows more about China tjian the 
Emperor of the Celestial Empire." * Dr. Fran- 
cis was married, and left several sons. 

John Howard Payne (1791-1852), actor, au- 
thor, and poet, was born in New York, at No. 33 
Pearl Street, the sixth of a family of nine chil- 
dren. His precocity was wonderful. At the age 
of fourteen, while a clerk in a counting-house, 



* "The Sayings of Dr. Bushwhacker and other Learned 
Men," by Frederick S. Cozzens. New York, 1867. 



390 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

he clandestinely edited the Thespian Mirror, a 
weekly journal. The following year he entered 
Union College, where he remained for two terms; 
and in 1809 he made a highly successful debut at 
the Park Theatre as Young Norval. Before the 
war of 1812-14 Payne went to England, where 
he played at Drury Lane and other theatres in 
Great Britain, with a fair measure of success. 
While living in London and Paris, where he was 
intimate with Washington Irving, he wrote a 
host of dramas, chiefly adaptations from the 
French. In one of these, " Clari ; or. The Maid 
of Milan," occurs his deathless song of " Home, 
Sweet Home," which made the fortunes of all 
concerned except the unfortunate author. By 
it Payne will be remembered long after his mul- 
titude of dramas are entirely forgotten, which, 
indeed, has very nearly happened already; and 
the melancholy fact will also be remembered 
that the poor poet never knew what it was to 
have a home after the age of thirteen, when his 
mother died. His father soon followed, and de- 
spite the tenderness of his heart, like Irving, he 
mamtained his celibacy and homelessness, dying 
at Tunis, on the distant shores of the Mediterra- 
nean, where he was then living as the American 
Consul. A handsome monument has been 
erected there to his memory, which is to be seen 
in the Cemetery of St. George. But his ashes 
are no longer there. It is a curious circumstance 




\ 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 39 1 

that Payne's restlessness did not end with his 
life, and that three decades after his death his 
dust should be borne across the ocean to find 
its final repose in the capital of his native land. 
At his re-interment in Washington (June, 1883), 
through the liberality of W. W. Corcoran, the 
benediction of the pathetic ceremony was the 
blending of a thousand voices and instruments 
in the immortal melody of " Home, Sweet 
Home." * Perhaps no single-song poet, living 
or dead, was ever so famous or so honoured as 
Payne. He made handsome sums by some of 
his plays, but nevertheless he was always in pe- 
cuniary perplexities. He speaks with bitter joc- 
ularity in one of his letters of the struggles he 
had to keep afloat since he grew too portly for 
the stage, and began " to fatten on trouble and 
starvation." Payne was a friend and correspon- 
dent of Coleridge and Charles Lamb, and inti- 
mate with many of the most eminent literary 
men of England. With Talma he was a great 
favourite. A sumptuous and limited octavo edi- 
tion of his life and poems was published in 1883, 
in which a fine steel portrait appears, representing 
the poet as I remember him when I saw him at 
the age of sixty. A second edition of this work 



* About the time of this pathetic tribute to his memory 
the writer was visiting the little apartment in the Palais 
Royal which Payne many years ago pointed out to Irving 
as the place where the poem was written. 



392 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

has since been issued, and in 1885 there was 
published an interesting volume, entitled "John 
Howard Payne: a Biographical Sketch of the 
Author of * Home, Sweet Home.' With a Narra- 
tive of the Removal of his Remains from Tunis to 
Washington. By Charles H. Brainard." There 
is a good painting of him by Jarvis in the Corco- 
ran Gallery at Washington, and a well-executed 
colossal bust of Payne in Prospect Park, Brook- 
lyn, erected through the efforts of Gabriel Har- 
rison, his first biographer, together with the 
Brooklyn Faust Club. A noble monument now 
marks his grave in Oak Hill Cemetery, and it is 
pleasanter to think of his lying where 

" Of his ashes may be made 
The violets of his native land," 

than as resting on the distant coast of Northern 
Africa. 

" Many years ago," said Halleck to the writer, 
" a friend of mine was dining in London with an 
American lady, the wife of an opulent banker, 
a member of the house of Baring Brothers. Dur- 
ing the evening Mr. Payne called and presented 
her with a copy of 'Home, Sweet Home,' set to 
music, and with two additional verses addressed 
to her, which I have never seen in print. The 
lines are as follows : 

" ' To us, in despite of the absence of years. 

How sweet the remembrance of home still appears! 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 393 

From allurements abroad, which but flatter the eye. 
The unsatisfied heart turns, and says with a sigh, 
" Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 

There's no place like home ! 

There's no place like home!" 

" ' Your exile is blest with all fate can bestow, 

But mine has been checker'd with many a woe ! 

Yet though different our fortunes, our thoughts are the 

same. 
And both, as we think of Columbia, exclaim, 
" Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
There's no place like home ' 
There's no place like home ! ' " 

William Leete Stone, the companion of 
Cooper and Halleck, was a native of Ulster 
County, New York (1792-1844). He removed 
with the family in 1809 to Cooperstown, where 
he assisted his father, the Rev. William Stone, 
in the care of his farm, but at the age of seven- 
teen became an apprentice in a newspaper office. 
After editing papers at Herkimer and Hudson, 
he made his way to New York, and for twenty- 
three years he was the editor of the Commercial 
Advertiser. He also became a prolific author, 
his most important works being memoirs of 
Brandt and Red Jacket, a " History of Wyom- 
ing," and " Border Wars of the American Revolu- 
tion." He had completed the collection and ar- 
rangement of the materials for an extended Me- 
moir of Sir William Johnson at the time of his 



594 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



death at Saratoga Springs, since completed and 
published by his son of the same name, a frequent 
contributor to the periodicals, and the compiler 
of several valuable historical works. Colonel 
Stone, as he was generally called, is said to have 
been an exceedingly amiable man, always ready 
to lend his aid to charitable and religious objects 
through the columns of the valuable daily jour- 
nal of which he was so long the leading editor. 

Charles P. Clinch (i 797-1880), a clever critic, 
dramatist, and poet of the Knickerbocker school, 
was a native of New York, where he received his 
education and spent his long life of eighty-three 
years, with the exception of a few winters passed 
in Albany as a member of the State Legislature. 
For nearly half a century he was the Deputy-Col- 
lector of the Port of New York, performing the 
important duties of that office, while the gentle- 
men of both parties appointed to the position of 
Collector wielded the political power and pocket- 
ed the emoluments. So sensitive was Mr, Clinch 
of even a suspicion of partiality in the perform- 
ance of his public duties, that he never, under any 
circumstances, would give decisions in cases con- 
nected with the importations of his brother-in- 
law, Alexander T. Stewart. In early life Mr. 
Clinch was the Secretary of Henry Eckford, an 
eminent and wealthy ship-builder of New York, 
at whose country-seat, several miles from the 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 395 



city, he first became acquainted, in 1815, with 
Halleck, Drake, and James E. DeKay, two of 
whom became sons-in-law of the opulent Scotch 
builder. Sixty years after Clinch stood with 
Halleck by the side of Drake's grave, he 
loved to speak of Drake and his spirited 
poems. He was the last survivor of Dr. 
Drake's friends, except Prof. William C. Fowler 
of Connecticut, the son-in-law of Noah Webster,* 
and the author of numerous educational and 
other works, who died in 1881, at the age of 
eighty-eight. For many years Mr. Clinch was 
an editorial writer for the press, and a literary 
and dramatic critic and author. His plays were 
respectively entitled " The Spy," " The Expelled 
Collegians, " and "The First of May," In a rare 
little volume lying on my desk, entitled " Rejected 
Addresses : together with the Prize Address of- 
fered for the Opening of the Park Theatre in 
the City of New York," published in 1821, there 
is an address by Clinch, also one by Halleck. 
Neither gained the prize, which was won by 
Charles Sprague, the banker-poet of Boston. 
Only a few weeks before his death (December 16, 
1880) my old friend said, "Drake was the hand- 
somest man in New York. He had a fine figure, 



* A dozen years ago a London journal spoke of Daniel 
Webster as " the distinguished chemist, lexicographer, and 
statesman, who was hanged for Dr. Parkman's murder"! 



39^ BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

and was much larger than Halleck. I once de- 
scribed them in some lines beginning: 

" ' There comes big D and little H .' 

Referring to the delay of the erection in the 
Central Park or elsewhere of Bryant's bust, for 
the unveiling of which he wrote the thoughtful 
lines to be found on a previous page of this 
volume, he asked me to take charge of them, and 
in answer to some complimentary expressions 
about the poem, exclaimed, quoting Halleck's 
lines: 

" No ! if a garland for my brow 
Is growing, let me have it now, 

While I'm alive to wear it , 
And if in whispering my name 
There's music in the voice of fame, , 

Like Garcia's, let me hear ii'" 

Was there ever a more beautiful compliment 
paid to a singer than Halleck here rendered to 
his friend Felicia Garcia ? 

There was no circumstance in the career of 
this worthy Knickerbocker 

" Who bore without reproach 
The grand old name of Gentleman" 

of which he was so proud as of having been the 
intimate and confidential friend of the literary 
partners Halleck and Drake. He was one of the 
five intrusted with the secret of the authorship 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 397 

of " The Croakers," the others being Dr, James 
E. DeKay; William Langstaff, Drake's eccentric 
business partner , Benjamin R. Winthrop, a 
fellow-clerk with Halleck in the counting-room 
of Jacob Barker in Wall Street ; and William 
Coleman, editor of the Evening Post, in which the 
witty jeux d' esprit appeared almost daily during 
the months of April and May, 1819. These 
good-natured verses were copied from the origi- 
nal by Dr. Langstaff or Mr. Clinch, that the 
handwriting should not divulge the secret of the 
authorship, and were either sent by post, or, 
more frequently, taken to the office by Clinch or 
Winthrop. Bryant and other friends and ad- 
mirers of Halleck having soon after the poet's 
death set on foot a movement to erect a statue 
to his memory, I applied to Mr, Clinch for a sub- 
scription, which he afterward gave with a lib- 
eral hand, but at the time sent me in reply the 
following lines without name or date : 

" But what to them the sculptor's art, 
In marble bust or urn metallic ? 
Wear they not, graven on the heart, 

The name of Fitz-Greene Halleck?" 

Many interesting and pleasant memories hov- 
ered around the name of this fine and exceed- 
ingly handsome old man, and in his removal 
from the world another important link between 
the Old and the New is severed. 



39^ BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 



MacDonald Clarke, familiarly called "the 
mad poet," was a native of New London, Conn. 
(1798-1842). Little is known of him beyond the 
fact that he and the poet Brainard were play- 
mates, till he appeared in New York in 1819, 
and soon afterwards married an actress. Clarke 
was for more than twenty years one of the fea- 
tures of Broadway ; and was always celebrating 
in extravagant verse the beauties and charms of 
the belles of the town and the topics of the day. 
He was a lyrist of the order of Natlianiel Lee, 
one of those wits in whose heads, according to 
Dryden, genius is divided from madness by a 
thin partition. Clarke's oddities, as Halleck 
told the writer, were all amiable. He had no 
vices, always preserved a gentility of deport- 
ment, and was a regular attendant at Grace 
Church. He was a frequent contributor to the 
metropolitan press, and published in the course 
of a quarter of a century five volumes of verse. 
His last book of poems, entitled " A Cross and 
a Coronet," appeared in 1841. One of his coup- 
lets is often quoted : 

" Now twilight lets her curtain down, 
And pins it with a star." 

It is also frequently used in the following form : 

" Night dropped her sable curtain down and pinned it with 
a star." 

Clarke died at the age of forty-four, and was 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 399 

buried in Greenwood Cemetery, at the Poet's 
Mound, Sylvan Water, where a modest monu- 
ment marks his grave. Halleck made him 
the hero of a poem called '* The Discarded ;" 
and on his brother-poet Clarke could always 
rely for pecuniary aid when all other resources 
failed. He often said, " I would rather have a 
kind word from that noble man Fitz-Greene 
Halleck than from any emperor." 

Robert Charles Sands, essayist and poet, 
was graduated at Columbia College in 1815. 
He was the son of a Revolutionary patriot, and 
a prominent merchant of New York City, where 
he was born in the last year of the eighteenth 
century (1799-1832). Sands studied law, and in 
1820 was admitted to the bar; but the profession 
proved uncongenial, and, like his friends Bryant 
and Dana, he left it to devote himself exclusively 
to literature. His most important poetical work, 
entitled " Yamoyden," was written by him. and his 
classmate James W. Eastburn (1797-1819), and 
his last appeared about a week before his un- 
timely death at Hoboken, where he resided for 
several years. It was there that Bryant, Sands, 
and Verplanck wrote the three volumes of "The 
Talisman," and it was also there that the mem- 
bers of "The Sketch Club" frequently met. 
Sands was also associated with Bryant in the 
brace of volumes called " Tales of Glauber Spa," 



400 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

to which Miss Sedgwick, Paulding, and Leggett 
were also contributors. He was from 1827 till 
his death one of the editors of the Commercial 
Advertiser. Sands never married. His was a 
tender and loving nature, and few men were ever 
more sincerely mourned. Verplanck edited his 
prose and poetical writings, and wrote a memoir 
of his friend. His last poem, called "The Dead 
of 1832," was written under the very shadow of 
death. He, too, was numbered among those 
who departed in that year. There is a vein 
of sadness in his "Yamoyden," yet he exhibited 
occasional outbursts of wit which made him sub- 
sequently noted as a humourist. His sister. Miss 
Sands of New York, is one of the few survivors 
of "The Sketch Club," the others being the ar- 
tists Durand, Prof. Weir, and John G. Chapman 
of Rome. The Club was sometimes known as 
"The XXI.," being originally limited to that 
number, and including Bryant, Verplanck, Hal- 
leck, Henry and John Inman, Morse, Hillhouse, 
Cole, and Ingham. It was at a meeting of " The 
XXL," or "Sketch Club," held at Charles M. 
Leupp's, in Amity Street, that the " Century" 
was organized, with the name of Gulian C. Ver- 
planck at the head of the list. The last meet- 
ing of the Sketch Club was held at Bryant's, in 
Sixteenth Street, in the winter of 1869, to meet 
his friend and former pastor. Dr. Orville Dewey, 
then residing at Sheffield, Mass., on which occa- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 4OI 

sion a few persons, not members, were invited to 
be present. 

Caroline Matilda Kirkland, nee Stansbury, 
was a native of New York (1801-1864). After 
the death of her father, who was a bookseller, 
the family removed to Geneva, where she mar- 
ried Professor William Kirkland (1800-1846), who 
afterwards established a seminary at Seneca 
Lake. He was the author of a series of admira- 
ble "Letters from Abroad," written after a resi- 
dence in Europe, and of numerous contributions 
to the periodicals. In 1846, tlie year of his 
death, he began, with the Rev. Henry W. Bel- 
lows, D.D., the Christian Inquirer^ a weekly Uni- 
tarian journal. In 1835 the famil}^ emigrated to 
Michigan, from whence they removed to New 
York City in 1843. Mrs. Kirkland's first work, 
"A New Home: Who'll Follow?" appeared in 
1839, ''Forest Life" in 1842, and "Western 
Clearings" in 1846. After her husband's death, 
she undertook the education of young ladies, and 
in the following year resumed her pen, editing 
the Union Magazine for eighteen months. As 
the fruit of a visit to Europe, Mrs. Kirkland 
published in 1849 " Holidays Abroad," followed 
by numerous other volumes, including a well- 
written "Life of Washington." This successful 
teacher, charming conversationalist, and admi- 
rable author died suddenly, a victim to her pa- 



402 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

triotic and disinterested efforts in behalf of the 
success of the great New York Sanitary Fair. 

James Gordon Brooks (1801-1841), the son of 
a Revolutionary soldier, was born at Claverack- 
on-the-Hudson, and was graduated at Union 
College. He studied law at Poughkeepsie, but 
never engaged actively in the profession. It was 
at this place that he first became known as a poet. 
Removing to New York, he entered upon the 
publication of several short-lived periodicals, in 
one of which he was associated with James Law- 
son, a Scottish poet, lately a resident of Yonkers. 
In 1828 Brooks married Miss Mary Elizabeth 
Aiken of Poughkeepsie, and in the following 
year they published " The Rivals of Este, and 
other Poems, by James G. and Mary E. Brooks." 
\n 1830 they removed to Virginia, where Mr. 
Brooks edited a paper for a few years, and again 
changed his residence^to Albany, where he died. 
His widow survived him for many years. Half 
a century ago the now forgotten singer's was 
one of the brightest poetical names of the day, 
and always mentioned along with those of 
iSryant, Dana, Halleck, Percival, Pierpont, Pinck- 
-iiey, Sprague, and Woodworth. Leggett at that 
time wrote a series of biographies of the most 
prominent American poets, which included all of 
the above except Dana. As Byron well says, 
" There is a fortune in fame, as in almost every- 
thing else in this world." 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 403 

The genial George Perkins Morris (1802- 
1864), a well-known journalist, and the most ad- 
mired of American song-writers, was a native of 
Philadelphia. In early life he removed to New 
York, and at fifteen was a contributor of verses 
to the newspapers of that city. At twenty-one 
with Woodworth for a partner, he established the 
Mirror, a literary weekly journal, which he con- 
tinued until 1844, when, associated with Willis 
and Hiram Fuller, he began the publication of 
the daily Evening Mirror. At the close of 1845 
he established the National Press, changed in 
November of the year following to the Home 
Journal, a highly successful society weekly, 
which he edited with Mr. Willis until a short, 
period before his death, at the age of sixty-two. 
General Morris edited a number of works, in- 
cluding "The Song- Writers of America," and in 
conjunction with Willis "The Prose and Poetry 
of Europe and America." In 1825 he wrote a 
successful drama, called " Briar Cliff," founded 
upon events of the American Revolution, from 
which he derived the substantial reward of 
thirty-five hundred dollars royalty or copyright. 
He was the author of the libretto of Charles E. 
Horn's opera " The Maid of Saxony," and of a 
volume of prose sketches published in 1836. 
But it is chiefly as a song writer that Morris 
will be best remembered. Some of his lyrics, 
such as "Woodman, Spare that Tree," and 



404 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

"■ Near the Lake where Drooped the Willow," 
are compositions of which any poet might be 
proud. A proof of the great popularity of 
Morris as a poet is the fact that for above a 
score of years he could, any day, exchange one 
of his songs unread for a fifty-dollar cheque, 
when none of the literati of New York could at 
that time sell one for the fifth part of that sum. 
Between 1838, the year that he published "The 
Deserted Bride, and other Poems," and i860, 
when the last edition of his poetical writings 
appeared, several collections of his songs, ballads, 
and poems were issued by some of the best New 
York publishers. His military title, by which 
he was usually designated, comes from his con- 
nection with the State militia- 
Morris said to the writer, in 1862, that he 
believed the three most popular American songs 
were Payne's " Home, Sweet Home," Sargent's 
"A Life on the Ocean Wave," and "Woodman, 
Spare that Tree," and alluded to the pleasure 
he had received from hearing the elder Russell,* 
who composed the music to his own and Sar- 
gent's poems, sing them, and also Sir Henry 
Bishop's arrangement of " Home, Sweet Home." 
But, added the poet, " No one ever sang Payne's 
lines like; Anna Bishop." "Is your song found- 
ed on fact ?" " O yes, certainly," said Morris ; 



* Henry Russell is still living in England. 



s^^^ f^ 






^ 

h 




THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 405 

and he then gave me substantially the same 
account that is contained in the following letter, 
dated New York, February i, 1837 : 

" Riding out of town a few days since, in company 
with a friend, an old gentleman, he invited me to turn 
down a little, romantic woodland pass not far from 
Bloomingdale. 'Your object?' inquired I. 'Merely 
to look once more at an old tree planted by my grand- 
father long before I was born, under which I used to 
play when a boy, and where my sisters played with 
me. There I often listened to the good advice of my 
parents. Father, mother, sisters — all are gone ; noth- 
ing but the old tree remains.' And a paleness over- 
spread his fine countenance, and tears came to his 
e\'es. After a moment's pause, he added : ' Don't think 
me foolish. I don't know how it is : I never ride out 
but I turn down this lane to look at that old tree. 1 
have a thousand recollections about it, and I always 
greet it as a familiar and well-remembered friend.' 
These words were scarcely uttered when the old gen- 
tleman cried out, ' There it is ! ' Near the tree stood 
a man with his coat off, sharpening an axe. ' You're 
not going to cut that tree down, surely.'' ' 'Yes, but I 
am, though,' said the woodman. ' What for ? ' inquired 
the old gentleman, with choked emotion. 'What for.'' 
I like that ! Well, I will tell you. I want the tree for 
firewood.' ' What is the tree worth to you for fire- 
wood ? ' ' Why, when down, about ten dollars.' ' Sup- 
pose I should give you that sum,' said the old gentle- 
man, 'would you let it stand ? ' ' Yes.' ' You are sure 
of that ? ' ' Positive ! ' ' Then give me a bond to that 
effect.' We went into the little cottage in which my 



4o6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

companion was born, but which is now occupied by 
the woodman. I drew up the bond. It was signed, 
and the money paid over. As we left, the young girl, 
the daughter of the woodman, assured us that while 
she lived the tree should not be cut. These circum- 
stances made a strong impression on my mind, and 
furnished me with the materials for the song I send 
you." 

To the statements contained in this interesting 
letter I will only add, that Morris said the tree 
was a grand old elm, and that it was then (1862) 
still standing. 

Many years ago a member of the House of 
Commons concluded a long speech in favour of 
protection by quoting, "Woodman, spare that 
tree"; the "tree," according to the speaker 
from Yorkshire, being the " Constitution," and 
Sir Robert Peel the "Woodman," about to cut 
it down. What American poet could desire a 
more gratifying compliment to his genius ? It 
greatly delighted Morris. He resided chiefly at 
Undercliff, on the banks of the Hudson, near 
Cold Spring, and it was when on his way to or 
from New York by the steamer Powell that the 
writer had the pleasure of frequently meeting 
the genial poet. 

William Leggett, an accomplished miscel- 
laneous writer, and for many years one of the 
editors of the Evening Post, was a native of New 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 407 

York City (1802-1839). After graduating at 
Georgetown College, at the age of twenty, he 
entered the navy as a midshipman. Resigning 
from the service in 1826, he began in his native 
city the career of a man of letters. His first 
publication was a volume of poems, and he was 
a constant contributor to the annuals and maga- 
zines of the day. In 1829 he became one of the 
editors of the Post, having previously married 
and settled at New Rochelle, where he died. In 
1840 there appeared a collection of his political 
writings, selected and arranged, with a preface, 
by his friend Theodore Sedgwick, Jr. Bryant 
was one of Leggett's warmest admirers, and 
wrote tributes to his memory both in prose and 
verse. From the latter we take the following 
lines: 

" The words of fire that from his pen 
Were flung upon the fervid page 
Still move, still shake the hearts of men, 
Amid a cold and coward age." 

It was the fiery Leggett that urged on Bryant 
to attack William L. Stone, a brother editor, in 
Broadway. He soon after fought a duel at Wee- 
hawken with Blake, the treasurer of the old 
Park Theatre. To the surprise of all New York, 
Leggett selected James Lawson, a peacefully- 
disposed Scottish-American poet, who was slight- 
ly lame, as his second; and when asked after the 



408 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

bloodless duel for his reasons, he answered, 
" Blake's second, Berkeley, was lame, and I did 

not propose that the d d Englishman should 

beat me in anything." 

John Inman, a brother of Henry, the artist, 
and William, a distinguished commodore of the 
navy, was born at Utica (1805-1850). With lit- 
tle education, he went to the South, where he 
taught school for ten years, and then with the 
fruit of his labour visited Europe. On his return 
he studied and for a time practised law, but re- 
linquished it to become the editor of the New 
York Standard. In 1833 he married Miss Fisher, 
a sister of Clara Fisher, Mrs. Vernon, and John 
Fisher, three of the comedians of the Park The- 
atre. In the same year Mr. Inman became asso- 
ciate editor of the Commercial Advertiser., and on 
the death of Colonel Stone, in 1844, he succeeded 
to the chief charge of the journal — a position 
which he retained until incapacitated by his last 
illness from performing its duties. He was also 
for several years the editor of the Columbian Mag- 
azine, and of various volumes of selections, and 
a contributor to the magazines where his essays, 
sketches, tales, and occasional poems were fa- 
vourably received. His versatility as a writer 
may be estimated from the fact that on one occa- 
sion he wrote an entire number of the Cohimbian 
Magazine while under his charge. Halleck es- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 409 

teemed him highly as a genial companion and an 
accomplished litterateur, and after Inman's death 
was a faithful friend to his family. 

Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884), — a 
brother of Ogden Hoffman, the distinguished 
lawyer, — born in New York City, and for thirty- 
four years, by reason of a mental disorder, living 
in complete retirement from the world, was per- 
haps the most generally admired of the group of 
Knickerbocker authors who flourished in his 
native city something less than half a century 
since, and of which he was the last survivor. As a 
song-writer he stands among Americans second 
only to Morris, and some writers have asserted 
that his lyric of *' Sparkling and Bright " is un- 
surpassed by any similar production in the lan- 
guage.* No American martial poem, I think, 
produced even during the War of the Rebellion 
equals Hoffman's spirited lines in his stanzas on 
the Mexican battle of Monterey, which enjoyed the 
distinction of being admired by the " Iron Duke," 
and his eldest son the second Duke of Wellington: 

" We were not many — we who stood 

Before the iron sleet that day; 
Yet many a gallant spirit would 
Give half his years if but he could 

Have been with us at Monterey. 

* " We often hear that such or such a thing is ' not worth 
an old song.' Alas, how few things are!" — Walter Sav- 
age Landor. 



410 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

'' Now here, now there, the shot it hailed 

In deadly drifts of fiery spray; 
Yet not a single soldier quailed 
When wounded comrades round them wailed 

Their dying shout at Monterey. 

" And on, still on our column kept, 

Through walls of flame its withering way; 
Where fell the dead the living stept, 
Still charging on the guns which swept 
The slippery streets of Monterey. 

" The foe himself recoiled aghast, 

When, striking where he strongest lay, 
We swooped the flanking batteries past, 
And braving full their murderous blast, 

Stormed home the towers of Monterey. 

" Our banners on those turrets wave, 

And there our evening bugles play; 
Where orange-boughs above their grave 
Keep green the memory of the brave 
Who fought and fell at Monterey. 

" We are not many, — we who pressed 

Beside the brave who fell that day; 
But who of us has not confessed 
He'd rather share their warrior rest 
Than not have been at Monterey ?" 

Charles Fenno at the age of eleven was with 
some boyish companions one day seated on the 
Cortlandt Street dock, with his legs hanging 
over the wharf as the ferry-boat came in, which 
caught one of his limbs and crushed it so badly 
as to render amputation above the knee neces- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 41I 

sary. At fifteen he entered Columbia College, 
having previously pursued his studies at the 
Poughkeepsie Academy, and six years later was 
admitted to the bar. Abandoning the law, he 
associated himself with Charles King in the 
editorship of the New York American, and three 
years later established the Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine. To its columns he contributed a series 
of letters descriptive of a tour in the North- 
west, which were collected and published in 
1834, entitled "A Winter in the West." This 
work was followed by " Wild Scenes in the For- 
est and Prairie," and in 1840 by the romance of 
"Grayslaer," founded on the celebrated criminal 
trial of Beauchampe for the murder of Colonel 
Sharpe of Kentucky, which also furnished the 
theme of Simms' novel of " Beauchampe." Mr. 
Hoffman also issued several volumes of poetry, 
and it is as a lyric poet that he is best known to 
the world. In this field he is unquestionably en- 
titled to take very high rank. Among the favour- 
ites which made his name so widely known, may 
be mentioned, "Rosalie Clare," " 'Tis Hard to 
Share her Smiles with Many," " The Myrtle 
and Steel," "Room, Boys, Room," and "Rio 
Bravo, a Mexican Lament." 

Of the large number of literary men who were 
present at the famous dinner given to authors at 
the City Hotel, March 30, 1837, by the booksellers 
of New York, Hoffman was the last survivor. 



412 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

During forty-seven years that he survived that 
memorable evening, he saw pass away, among 
others who were present, Chancellor Kent, 
Colonel Trumbull, Albert Gallatin, Washington 
Irving, Fitz-Greene Halleck, James K. Paulding, 
William Cullen Bryant, George P. Morris, Wil- 
liam L. Stone, Edgar A. Poe, Dr. John W. Fran- 
cis, Orville Dewey, Matthew L. Davis, Charles 
King, and Lewis Gaylord Clark. 

Hoffman, said a leading London literary jour- 
nal some twoscore years ago, " belongs to the 
front rank of American authors " ; adding, " his 
plume waved above the heads of all the literary 
men of America a cubit clear." While filling a 
Government position at Washington, he was in 
1850 attacked by a mental disorder, from which 
he unfortunately never recovered. He died in 
the Harrisburg Asylum, of which he had been 
an inmate for thirty-four years, June 7, 1884. 
He was not a graduate of Columbia College, 
which he left in his Junior year; but at the semi- 
centennial celebration of its incorporation he re- 
ceived the honorary degree of A.M., conferred 
on him in company with Washington Irving, 
Fitz-Greene Halleck, and William Cullen Bryant. 
According to my youthful recollection, Hoffman 
had a military bearing, was above the average 
height, with broad shoulders, on which was set a 
fine head, with dark-brown hair, and eyes hidden 
behind glasses made necessary by his near-sight. 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LIIERATURE. 413 

He had about him the hearty, breezy atmos- 
phere that characterized Christopher North, 
and he possessed all the Professor's love of 
manly sports. 

Laughton Osborn (1808-1878), a literary re- 
cluse, was a native of New York City, where his 
father was a well-known and wealthy physician. 
Graduating at Columbia College in 1827, where, 
a classmate tells me, he was studious and popu- 
lar, he in 1831 astonished the town with a 
rambling imitation of " Tristram Shandy," en- 
titled " Sixty Years of the Life of Jeremy Lew- 
is." At this time a favourite sister died, and the 
event appears to have tended fully to develop a 
latent eccentricity. On his return from a year 
of foreign travel, he lived for nearly half a cen- 
tury in retirement in his native city, writing 
books, and at war with publishers and critics 
("who damned with faint praise" the produc- 
tions of his pen), and indeed with the world in 
general. Osborn's eccentricities surpassed even 
those of Edgar A. Poe, who said of him, " He is 
undoubtedly one of nature's own noblemen, full 
of generosity, courage, honour, chivalrous in 
every respect, but unhappily carrying his idea of 
chivalry, or rather of independence, to the point 
of quixotism, if not of absolute insanity." Os- 
born was the author of numerous volumes, mostly 
issued at his own cost, and without his own 



414 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

name as author, the best known of which are the 
metrical romance of "Arthur Carryl;" " Calvary," 
a most remarkable tragedy, now extremely rare; 
and "Rubeta, an epic story of the Island of Man- 
hattan," — a satirical poem in which he took his 
revenge on the critics of his " Confessions of a 
Poet." He was a noticeable and handsome man, 
and was pointed out to me some twenty years 
ago. As I recall him, he was at least six feet 
in height, with a fine physique and carriage. 
Laughton Osborn was not only an accomplished 
writer of prose and verse, but the master of many 
modern languages, a good painter and a skilled 
musician, who, but for his eccentricity or mad- 
ness, might have excelled many names that now 
eclipse his. He has been called an American 
Crichton. 

Alfred Billings Street (1811-1881), the last 
of the poets to find a place in our gallery, was 
born at Poughkeepsie, December 18, 181 1. He 
was educated at the Dutchess County Academy; 
studied law with his father. General Street; 
practised for a few years, and in 1839 settled in 
Albany, where he long occupied the post of State 
Librarian. He was one of our best descriptive 
poets, and among the most prolific. Between 
1842, when he published '' The Burning of Sche- 
nectady and other Poems," and 1878, when his 
latest poem appeared on the subject of the sur- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 415 

render of Burgoyne at Saratoga, Mr. Street is- 
sued a number of volumes in prose and verse. 
His most important work, entitled " Frontenac," 
a metrical romance, appeared in 1848, and has 
been highly praised by Bryant and Lord Bea- 
consfield, who said that it was characterized by 
originality and poetic fire. Some of Street's 
poems have been translated into German — a rare 
honour for American poets. No American singer, 
not even Bryant, made a closer or more devout 
study of Nature in all her multitudinous mani- 
festations. To none had she revealed more of 
her mysteries, or taught more of her inspiring 
lessons. It may with truth be said of Street 
what Lowell in one of his essays says of Thoreau: 
"He had watched Nature like a detective who 
is to go upon the stand. As we read him it 
seems as if all out-doors had kept a diary and 
become its own Montaigne. We look on the land- 
scape as in a Claude-Lorraine glass." Longfellow 
named him the best delineator of forest scenery 
in the New World; Whipple speaks of his "pho- 
tographs" of American scenery; Bayard Taylor 
paid a tribute to the Flemish fidelity of his de- 
scriptions; while Bryant wrote: 

" In looking over the poems of Alfred B. Street I 
have been more than ever impressed with the fidelity 
and vividness of the images newly drawn from nature. 
Many things which, although seen by the common eye, 
can hardly be said to be observed, here, in his verses. 



4l6 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

have the effect and charm both of familiarity and nov- 
elty. I am not at all surprised to learn that many pas- 
sages have been attributed to Thoreau as an exact and 
acute observer of Nature. I cannot refrain from bear- 
ing this testimony to the merit of writings from which 
I have received great pleasure." 

The last time I saw Street was at the centennial 
celebration of the victory of Saratoga. As we 
rode together in company with Gov. Seymour and 
Geo. W. Curtis, he expressed his hearty admira- 
tion of Halleck, calling him our greatest lyric 
poet. No other American poet's productions 
affected him in the same manner. He kindly 
added, with some pleasant expressions, that he 
hoped he might have such a friend to preserve 
his memory when he was gone as Halleck had 
found.* On this occasion Street read a few 
hundred lines of his latest poem, on *' The Field 
of the Grounded Arms." He died on the second 
of June, 1881, having nearly completed three- 
score and ten. 

Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813-1871), a 
miscellaneous writer, and not unknown as a poet, 
was a native of Boston, who spent a quarter of 
a century in New York engaged in literary pur- 
suits. In 1833-34, and again in 1837-38, and in 



* " Life and Letters of Fitz Greene Halleck." By James 
Grant Wilson. 



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THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 417 

1852, he went abroad, residing for some time in 
Italy, devoting himself to art-studies and writing 
for American periodicals, in which the bulk of his 
works originally appeared. He gave to the world 
"The Italian Sketch-Book," 1835; "Sicily: a 
Pilgrimage," 1839; "Rambles and Reveries," 
1841; "Thoughts on the Poets," 1846; "Artists 
Life; or, Sketches of American Painters," 1847; 
"Characteristics of Literature," 1849; and other 
books, including two volumes of poems. His 
latest work, " The Life of John Pendleton Ken- 
nedy" (1795-1870), appeared in the same year 
that he died. In the Redwood Library at New- 
port, where Tuckerman, who never married, was 
in the habit for many years of spending his sum- 
mers, there is an interesting memorial of the 
amiable and accomplished author, who was 
known in the best society of Newport and New 
York. It consists of his own copies of all his 
published works, inclosed in a beautiful casket 
of cedar and ebony, accompanied by his portrait, 
the whole a gift to the Library from Mr. Tucker- 
man's sister. 

Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878), a 
scholar of singularly pure and stainless charac- 
ter, was the son of a New York publisher. He 
was educated in his native city, graduating from 
Columbia College in 1835. He studied law in 
the office of John Anthon, and was admitted to 



41 8 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the bar; but his tastes and associations inclined 
him to a literary life, and his fortune permitted 
him to pursue that calling which Sir Walter Scott 
said was "a good staff, but a poor crutch." 
After an extended tour in the Old World with 
James W. Beekman of New York, Mr. Duyckinck 
returned to his native city, and in 1840 com- 
menced, with Cornelius Matthews, a new month- 
ly called Arcturus, a Journal of Books and Opin- 
ions, which was continued through three volumes. 
To this work he contributed many admirable 
essays and reviews. In 1847 he established The 
Literary World, which, with the exception of an 
interval of about a year, when it was conducted 
by Charles Fenno Hoffman, was carried on to 
the close of 1853, by him and his brother, George 
Long Duyckinck (1823-1863). On the termina- 
tion of this weekly literary journal (in the judge- 
ment of the poet Dana, the best ever published 
in this country), the brothers were again 
united in a work, to which their familiarity with 
the writings of living authors formed a useful 
preparation, *' The Cyclopaedia of American Lit- 
erature." The first edition of this noble work 
appeared in 1856, and ten years later a supple- 
ment was added by the surviving brother. 
Duyckinck next edited a volume entitled " The 
Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith, with a Bio- 
graphical Memoir and Notes," a work which 
passed through numerous editions. In 1862 he 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 4I9 

wrote the letter-press to the " National Portrait 
Gallery of Eminent Americans," published in two 
quarto volumes, and edited a " Contemporary 
History of the War for the Union," which ap- 
peared in three volumes. He also edited a *'His-^ 
tory of the World " in four volumes, and many 
other books, including an edition of Shakespeare, 
in the editorship of which he was associated with 
William Cullen Bryant. His last literary labour 
was preparing a privately printed " Memorial 
of Fitz-Greene Halleck," descriptive of the pro- 
ceedings at the dedication of the monument at 
Guilford, Conn., and the unveiling of the poet's 
statue in the Central Park. For the last forty 
years of his quiet and uneventful life, Mr. Duyck- 
inck resided at No. 20 Clinton Place, New YoiJc, 
where he died on the 13th of August, 1878, and 
was buried at Tarrytown, near the grave of 
Washington Irving. He left a widow but no sur- 
viving children, and bequeathed his large and 
valuable collection of books to the Lenox Li- 
brary. His friend William Allen Butler delivered 
an appreciative memorial sketch of his life and 
literary labours before the New York Historical 
Society, January 7, 1879. 

William Alfred Jones, an " accomplished es- 
sayist," as Bryant once called him, and a mem- 
ber of an old and distinguished family, was born 
in the city of New York, June 26, 181 7. He was 



420 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

graduated from Columbia College in 1836, and 
read law in company with his classmate John 
Jay in the office of Daniel Lord. Mr. Jones 
never practised his profession, adding one more 
to the long list of literary aspirants who in early 
life left the law for literary pursuits. For nearly 
twenty years he was a constant contributor of 
essays and literary criticisms to New York 
periodicals, commencing in 1838 in Park Benja- 
min's ( 1 809-1 864) American Monthly, and contin- 
uing among others in Arcturus, the Democratic 
Review, and the American Whig Review. He was 
for a time associated with Dr. Hawks (1798- 
1866) in the editorship of the New York Church 
Record, and again with Charles Fenno Hoffman, 
the last survivor of the early contributors to 
the Knickerbocker Literature, in the Literary 
World, and also with his brother-in-law. Rev. 
Dr. Seabury, in editing the Churchman. Mr. 
Jones's first volume, entitled " The Analyst : a 
Collection of Miscellaneous Papers," appeared 
in 1840, followed by '' Literary Studies," 1847; 
" Essays upon Authors and Books," 1849; memo- 
rial of his father, the Hon. David S. Jones, 1849; 
and his final collection of essays called " Char- 
acters and Criticisms," in two volumes, which 
appeared in 1857, and were highly commended 
by Irving, Halleck, Bryant, Dana, and Simms, 
of South Carolina, all personal friends of the 
accomplished writer. In 185 1 Mr. Jones was ap- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 42 1 

pointed Librarian of Columbia College, and re- 
tained the position till 1865, when he relinquish- 
ed it to retire to Norwich, Conn., where he 
still resides. While librarian he published sev- 
eral pamphlets, the most important of which 
are "The First Century of Columbia College 
and the Library of Columbia College," and an 
" Address on Long Island," read before the Long 
Island Historical Society. Mr. Jones has been 
twice married, but has no children. As a critic 
and essayist he belongs to the school of Hazlitt 
and Leigh Hunt, and is more of an eighteenth- 
century writer than of the nineteenth. As his 
various volumes are now entirely out of print, it 
is to be wished that he might give the public a 
collection of his most admired and valuable es- 
says, together with some of the later fruit of his 
practised pen. 

Frederick Swartwout Cozzens (1818-1869), 
was a native of New York City, where he received 
his education and spent nearly all his days. He 
entered early on a mercantile career, and eventu- 
ally became a prominent wine-merchant, publish- 
ing in connection with his business a monthly 
periodical entitled " The Wine-Press." For this 
as well as other periodicals he wrote interesting 
articles on grape culture and other topics. A 
series of papers originally contributed to the 
Knickerbocker Magazine were collected and issued 



422 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

in a volume in 1853, with the title of " Prismatics, 
by Richard Haywarde." It was tastefully illus- 
trated by his artist-friends Darley, Elliot, Hicks, 
Kensett, and Rossiter. This volume was followed 
in 1854 by another, entitled "The Sparrowgrass 
Papers," illustrated by Darley, consisting of a 
series of sketches, which appeared in Putnam's 
Monthly, humorously descriptive of a cockney 
residence in the country. These were in part 
exaggerated accounts of personal experiences in 
his summer retreat, near Yonkers on the Hudson, 
known as "Chestnut Cottage." In 1858 Mr. Coz- 
zens attended the Copyright Congress of Brussels 
as a delegate of the New York Publishers' As- 
sociation; and in the same year he issued his 
third volume called "Acadia; or, A Sojourn among 
the Blue Noses." Mr. Cozzens, who was inti- 
mate with Irving and Halleck, and the friend and 
correspondent of Thackeray, published a pleas- 
ant memorial of " Fitz-Greene Halleck," and 
also a brochm-e, " The Stone House on the Sus- 
quehanna." In 1864 he prepared an eloquent 
eulogy on his friend Colonel Peter A. Porter of 
Niagara, who lost his life at the battle of Cold 
Harbour, He was also the author of an occasional 
poem, one of which, entitled " Bunker Hill : An 
Old-Time Ballad," has found its way into various 
anthologies. His latest and perhaps his most im- 
portant work, to which Verplanck contributed and 
to whom it was dedicated, was published in 1867, 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 423 

and was entitled " The Sayings of Dr. Bush- 
whacker and other Learned Men." Of this book 
the poet Halleck wrote to me as follows : 

Guilford, September 11, 1867. 

My dear General : .... I am very thankful for 
your kind offer to send me the " Old New York" of my 
old favourite, Dr. Francis ; but I have already the pleas- 
ure of possessing a copy, the gift of our friend Mr. 
Tuckerman. It is especially interesting to me, more 
so than it can ever be to you, a younger man, from my 
intimacy with him, and with many of the persons and 
events it memorializes. In connection with it, allow me 
to beg you to read Mr. Cozzens's recently published 
volume, " The Sayings of Dr. Bushwacker," etc., where 
you will see and hear the doctor (assuming that you have 
known him more or less intimately) alive and speaking 
before you. The " faculty divine," the power of in- 
vention, the wit, the wisdom, the stores of miscellane- 
ous, literature, the doctor did not possess. Your ad- 
miration of all these belongs to Mr. Cozzens ; but the 
doctor dramatically represents them to your perfect 
delight. 

I have long more than fancied, I have felt, that 
Mr. Cozzens, in that department of genius to which Mr. 
Irving's " Knickerbocker," a work superior, in my opin- 
ion, to the "Sketch-Book," belongs, is the best, or 
among the best, writers of our time in any language. 
Analyze his lines closely and critically, and I have but 
little doubt of your concurrence in my belief. 

Mr. Verplanck's two articles included in the volume 
are also worthy of all praise. As what I take great 
pleasure in terming " American Specimens of English 



424 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

Literature," etc., the writings of these two gentlemen 
do honour to our side of the Atlantic. As Addison 
says in his Cato, 

" In them our Zama does not stoop to Rome " 

We have others of whom we may also be and are fast 
becoming equally proud. 

I have been emphatic in using the word English in 
place of American literature, because I have never been 
able to define what American LiteraHcre means. Must 
its author live at and speak the language of Canada 
or Cape Horn ? Must he write in Portuguese in the 
Brazils.'' in Spanish at Havana? in French at Quebec? 
in Cherokee among our Indians? Does not the fact of 
his writing in English (good English) entitle him to a 
place among the noblest of English authors, no matter 
to what form of political government he may chance to 
owe allegiance ? The " Court and Capital" of the Eng- 
lish language is London. To the honours of that 
" Court and Capital " Mr. Irving's writings have long 
been admitted, and those of such writers of ours as I 
have named and could name will, sooner or later, be 
admitted as gratefully and gladly as his have been. 

In thanking Mr. Cozzens for the present of his 
book, I told him it proved him to have drank of the 
waters of the "well of English undefiled," even if he 
had stolen the bottles in which they were imported! 
I hope you younger authors will profit, or rather con- 
tinue to profit, by his example. ... 

Richard Grant White (1822-1885), the 
youngest member of the Knickerbocker school 
to receive mention in this volume, always enter- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE, 425 

tained a certain pleasant pride in his native city 
of New York, where he received his education, 
lived, died, and was buried. He was the son of a 
prosperous South Street merchant, and was born 
May 23, 1822, being graduated with honours at 
the University of New York. He studied medi- 
cine, and later was admitted to the bar, but the 
Muses had marked him for their own, and he 
early entered upon a literary career. He became 
a musical and art critic, and was soon a recog- 
nized authority on those subjects, of which there 
was much less knowledge then than at the pres- 
ent time. He next became known as a con- 
tributor to the magazines, his Shakespeare arti- 
cles, appearing in the days of old Putnam^ at- 
tracting much attention. In these he exposed 
the clumsy manuscript corrections of the Col- 
lier-Perkins Folio of 1632. This series of able 
papers was soon followed by his first volume, 
"Shakespeare's Scholar" (1853), which at once 
won for him, as Lowell said, his literary spurs, 
and which in turn led to the critical edition of 
the master's works.* Another special depart- 
ment of Mr. White's literary interest and activ- 



* In a pleasant note complimenting the writer on an ar- 
ticle concerning " The Autographs of Shakespeare," Mr. 
White made the curious confession, that although he had 
spent much time in London, he had never seen the Will at 
Somerset House, or the other documents which contain the 
only five absolutely authentic signatures of Shakespeare. 



426 BRYANT A^TD HIS FRIENDS. 



ity was philology. Of several volumes which 
he published on this subject, perhaps the best 
known is "Words and their Uses." 

When the Civil War began in 1861, White ren- 
dered good service to the Union cause by con- 
tributing a series of able articles to the London 
Spectator, in which he furnished the information 
and argument best calculated to disillusionize 
the British people of their sentimental sympathy 
and attachment to the South. But his chief 
work at this period was "The New Gospel of 
Peace," which was issued anonymously, and was 
by far the most generally popular of all his writ- 
ings. It was a broad and exceedingly pungent 
satire upon the Copperhead and peace-at-any- 
price factions, in the form of the Biblical annals. 
The brochwe greatly amused Mr. Lincoln and 
his astute Secretary of State. The dedication to 
William H. Seward of the volume entitled " The 
Genius of Shakespeare," issued in 1863, is among 
the most interesting incidents of Mr. White's 
literary career. In early life he formed an un- 
favourable opinion of the Secretary's character, 
which in a careful and candid examination he 
found to be erroneous. He felt that he had been 
unjust to Mr. Seward and became one of his 
greatest admirers, the result of which was the 
dedication to him, although never asking or re- 
ceiving any favour from him, or even making liis 
acquaintance. White's " England Without and 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 427 

Within" provoked much discussion and some 
exceedingly sharp criticism, but his main points 
were generally untouched. His last book, "The 
Fate of Mansfield Humphreys," issued in 1884, 
also received some rough handling from the Sat- 
urday Review and other literary authorities of 
London. He contributed many elaborate and 
carefully-written articles to Appleton's and John- 
son's Cyclopaedias, on such subjects as Shake- 
speare, Art, Music, and Musical Instruments. 
His knowledge of violins was marvellous, and 
wonderful stories were current of his connoisseur- 
ship of that and other instruments. Although 
his favourite pursuit was music, and he had such 
a singularly thorough knowledge of the violin, 
he was not an expert player upon that or upon 
any other instrument. 

Until within a few months of his death, he 
continued to contribute to the magazines, where 
his articles were always welcome. Among his 
latest papers were some pleasant illustrated pages 
of recollections of the early opera and operatic 
singers, which appeared in Harper s Magazine. 
White, while pursuing a literary career, filled a 
responsible Government position, like Sir Henry 
Taylor. For nearly a quarter of a century he 
held the office of Chief Clerk of the Revenue 
Bureau of the New York Custom-House, from 
which position he was not removed, but volun- 
tarily resigned in 1878. His life was retired, and 



428 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

his intimates were not numerous. At concerts 
and at the opera his tall, erect, and striking fig- 
ure (he was six feet and three inches), resem- 
bling that of an English guardsman, was very 
familiar to habituh. He was a man of many ac- 
complishments and achievements, but almost ex- 
clusively devoted to literary and artistic pursuits. 

After suffering for several months from a com- 
plication of disorders, he died April 8th, and was 
buried from St. Mark's Church in the Bowery — 
Curtis and Stedman and many other literary 
comrades and contemporaries being present at 
his funeral services. 

The following sonnet, written by White when 
only twenty-one, enjoyed the distinction of being 
attributed to Wordsworth and to Walter Savage 
Landor, and what was perhaps more to the pur- 
pose — served to make him known to Henry J. 
Raymond, then the managing editor of the 
Courier and Enquirer, who soon after sought him 
out and offered him an engagement as musical 
and dramatic critic of that paper. And so began 
Richard Grant White's literary career of more 
than two-score years. The rather remarkable 
sonnet for a youth of twenty-one was entitled 
*' Washington:" 

" High over all whom might or mind made great, 
Yielding the conqueror's crown to harder hearts, 
Exalted not by politician's arts, 
Yet with a will to meet and master fate, 
And skill to rule a young, divided State; 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 429 

Greater by what was not than what was done — 

Alone on History's height stands Washington; 
And teeming Time shall not bring forth his mate; 
For only he, of men, on earth was sent, 

In all the might of mind's integrity; 
Ne'er as in him truth, strength, and wisdom blent; 

And that his glory might eternal be, 
A boundless country is his monument, 

A mighty nation his posterity." 



The writer does not pretend to have included 
in this paper all of the brilliant band of American 
authors who contributed more or less to the 
Knickerbocker Literature, but he believes that 
the names of nearly all the most prominent have 
been mentioned. Others would have been intro- 
duced did the limited space at the author's 
command permit, such as the travellers John L. 
Stephens and the learned Dr. Edward Robinson ; 
the scholars Professors Francis Lieber, C. S. 
Henry, Charles Hodge, and Charles King ; the 
dramatists William Dunlap, Mrs. Anna Cora 
Mowatt, and M. M. Noah ; the medical writers 
Doctors David Hosack and Samuel T. Mitchell ; 
the miscellaneous writers William Henry Her- 
bert, the sisters Susan and Anna B. Warner, Mrs. 
Aim S. Stephens and Susan Fenimore Cooper, 
daughter of the prose poet of the silent woods and 
stormy seas; the editors Park Benjamin, William 
Coleman, the brothers Lewis G. and Willis Gay- 
lord Clark, Dr. Rufus W. Griswold, Greeley, 



430 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

the brothers Gerard and William A. Hallock,* 
R. Shelton Mackenzie, the Primes, Raymond, 
Ripley, Webb, and Thurlow Weed; the Scottish- 
American writers. Hew Ainslie, James Lawson, 
Grant Thorburn, and William Wilson ; the lit- 
terateurs, Charles F. Briggs, Herman Melville, 
Robert Tomes, Richard B. Kjmball, Maunsell B. 
Field, Theodore Sedgwick Fay, William S. Mayo, 
Capt. Slidell Mackenzie, and Charles Astor Bris- 
ted; the clerical authors Bethune, Bellows, the 
Abbotts, Chapin, Cheever, Coxe, Hawks, Head- 
ley, Muhlenberg, Osgood, Ray Palmer, Sheldon, 



* The Rev. Dr. Wm. A. Hallock of New York, (1794- 
1880), who studied with Bryant under "Parson Hallock's" 
roof, at Plainfield, Mass., in 1810, received from the young 
poet of eighteen a scheme for a course of reading while in 
Williams College, The memoranda in Hallock's journal 
is as follows: "The following books were recommended 
to me by William Cullen Bryant, to be read while in college, 
viz.: Addison's Prose Writings; Bolingbroke's Reflections 
in Exile; Goldsmith's Writings; Johnson's Idler, Rambler, 
and Adventurer; Smith's Longinus; Johnson's Lives of the 
Poets; Alison on Taste; Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare; 
Burke's Writings; Pope's Prefaces to Shakespeare and 
Homer; Erskine's Speeches; Chapman's Select Speeches; 
Travels of Anacharsis ; Langhorne's Plutarch ; Fisher 
Ames' Speeches; Cumberland's Memoirs; Reid's Inquiry; 
Stewart's Philosophy; Aikin's Letters; Life of Sir William 
Jones." The chief interest of this list lies in the fact that 
when Bryant recommended them to Hallock, he had, as he 
stated, perused every page of each one of the solid volumes 
before he entered Williams College, at the age of sixteen. 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 43 1 

Sprague, and Bishop Wainwright ; the legal 
luminaries James Kent and Henry Wheaton ; 
and finally the poets, Mrs. Botta {ne'e Lynch), 
Mrs. Ellet, Mrs. Embury, Mrs. Osgood, Mrs. 
Seba Smith, Mrs. Sigourney, Isaac M'Lellan, 
Richard Henry Stoddard, William Allen Butler, 
W. P. Palmer, Wm. Ross Wallace, Hosmer, 
Ralph Hoyt, Granville Mellen, Rev. Dr. Clement 
C. Moore and others. Some of these, notably 
Stoddard, xieserve detailed remark ; but the 
more conspicuous of them did their real work 
after the half-century mark was passed, and that 
is the general line of limitation we laid down in 
the beginning. 

A high English authority — perhaps the very 
highest — mentions Bryant as one of the most 
eminent of English-speaking poets, who has un- 
questionably written one of the noblest poems in 
the English language, far superior to anything 
ever imagined by Longfellow.* Dana, Halleck, 
and Longfellow looked up to Bryant as to a 
Master. Among living authorities, Whitman 
places Bryant at the head of American poets. 
Dickens admired Halleck f above all other Ameri- 



* The " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 

f To the author of this volume Charles Dickens wrote in 
January, 1868: " I thank you cordially for your considerate 
kindness in sending me the enclosed note [from Halleck to 
Mrs. Rush of Philadelphia, describing the Dickens dinner 



432 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

can authors except Irving. Samuel Rogers said 
two or three of Halleck's productions surpassed 
anything that he had seen from the New World, 
and Alfred B. Street asserted that he would 
rather have been the author of Halleck's six best 
poems than of any other half-dozen written by 
an American. Poe, the next of the Knicker- 
bocker trio of poets, is placed by competent au- 
thorities among the six most popular of Ameri- 
can singers, one of whom says, " in the regions 
of the strangely terrible, remotely fantastic, and 
ghastly, Poe reigns supreme." 

It may be doubted whether the recent predic- 
tion will be verified, that few American writers 
of fifty years ago are destined to last another 
fifty years. We do not believe that the produc- 
tions of Bryant and Cooper, of Halleck and Irv- 
ing, of Drake and Edgar A. Poe, and the other 
principal Knickerbockers, will be forgotten in the 
year 1935. On the contrary, we have the faith 
to believe that at least a portion of their writ- 
ings, together with those of Bancroft and Emer- 
son, of Hawthorne and Holmes, of Longfellow 
and Lowell, of Prescott and Whittier, will suc- 



at the City Hotel, New York, in 1842]. I have read it with 
the greatest interest, and have always retained a delightful 
recollection of its amiable and accomplished writer. I, too, 
had hoped to see him ! My dear Irving being dead, there 
was scarcely any one in America whom I so looked forward 
to seeing again as our old friend often thought of." 



THE KNICKERBOCKER LITERATURE. 433 

cessfully endure the test of a much longer period, 
— that "upon the adamant of their fame time 
beats without injury." 

A few of the authors who in prose or verse 
contributed to the " Knickerbocker Literature" 
during the first half of the present century are 
still among us with their "locks of gray;" but 
the great majority, crowned with years and 
honours, have passed away to join the " dead but 
sceptred sovereigns who still rule over our 
spirits from their urns." These writers were 
the brilliant pioneers of American literature ; for 
the only professional authors of the New World 
who preceded them were Joseph Dennie and 
Charles Brockden Brown. Many voices have 
followed Bryant and Cooper, Halleck and Irving, 
Paulding and Verplanck ; but we shall not forget 
the forerunners who rose in advance of their 
welcome in what Bacon calls " the great ship of 
Time." * 

Whether the writers representing the " Knick- 



*"Our second considerable crop of American authors, 
born (say) since 1825, has less force, less body, less breadth, 
than our first great crop, which included Cooper, Bryant, 
Irving, Emerson, Longfellow, and Whittier. ... It seems 
to me that we are refining now at the expense of strength. 
Our poets and critics, like our ' buggies ' and pleasure 
vehicles, lack timber, lack mass. Our popular novelists 
are all point and no body." — John Burroughs, in The 
Critic, June 6, 1885. 



434 BRYANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

erbocker Literature" that gathered round Wash- 
ington Irving in his golden and palmy days at 
Sunnyside, half a century ago, or those that 
clustered around the loved poet of Cambridge 
some three decades later, in the era when it was 
called by competent authorities the " intellectual 
centre of the United States," were the strongest, 
the readers of this volume must judge for them- 
selves. Notwithstanding the prevailing fashion 
among many recent writers to underrate and 
sneer at the " Knickerbocker Literature," it 
would seem, in the author's judgement, that 
Irving, Bryant, Poe, Cooper, and their com- 
rades certainly contributed at least no less to 
the literary glory of their native land than have 
Prescott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and 
their contemporaries. 

When a very great man was asked by the 
writer for his opinion on this point, he an- 
swered, " They cannot be compared any more 
than you would compare the commerce of the 
city of Boston with that of your great metro- 
polis." 

Who will question the impartial judgement 
of so competent a critic as Benjamin Disraeli? 



INDEX. 



Academy of Design, 13. 
Academy of Music, 155 
Academy, The London, 59. 
Adams, Charles Francis, 180. 
Adams, John, 182. 
Adams, John Quincy, 12. 
Adams, Dr. William, 196. 
Addison, Joseph, 135, 424. 
A Forest Hymn, 105. 
Ages, The, 73. 
Ainslie, Hew, 430. 
Alcott, Miss, 70. 
Alden, Dr. E., 185. 
Alden Family, 15. 
Alden, Rev. Joseph, 125. 
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 70. 
Alger, Rev. William R., 339. 
Alhambra, The, 159, 177. 
Allan, John, 334, 335. 
AUston, Washington, 182, igo, 195, 

201, 210, 223, 224, 227, 380. 
Allston, William, 380. 
American Authors, 149. 

— Collectors, 207. 

— Comedies, 147. 

— Literature, 424. 

— Scholarship, 203. 
Americus, Bust of, 153. 
Ames Family, 15. 
Among the Trees, 73. 
Analectic Magazine, 386. 
Andover Seminary, 196. 
Andrd, Major, 132, 153. 
Andrew, Governor, 217. 
Aikin, Mary E., 424. 
Anthologies, 104. 
Anthology Club, 189. 
Anthon, John, 417. 
Appleton, D., & Co., 63, 115. 
Appleton, Nathan, 201. 
Appleton, Thomas G., 211. 
Arcturus, 418, 420. 
Armstrong, Gen. John, 131. 



Arthur, Chester A., 12. 
Astor, John Jacob, 251, 253. 
Astor Library, 185. 
Atlantic Monthly, 351. 
Athenaeum, The, 207. 
Auerbach, Berthold, 354. 
Autographs of Shakespeare, 425. 
Avery, John, 29, 31. 

Bacon, Lord, 307, 433. 
Backwoodsman, The, 130, 138, 139. 
Baltimore American, 337. 
Bancroft, George, 13, 348, 353, 360, 

361, 371, 432- 
Baring Brothers & Co., 392. 
Barker, Jacob, 251, 252, 299, 397. 
Barlow, Joel, 228, 341, 353, 386. 
Barrett, Rev. E. D., 28, 33. 
Baylies, William, 39^ 
Beaconsfield, vide Disraeli. 
Beaumont and Fletcher, 310. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 70, 343. 
Beekman, James W., 418. 
Beers, Professor, 331. 
Bellows, Rev. H. W., 401. 
Benjamin, Park, 201, 343, 349, 420. 
Benton, Joel, 343. 
Bigelow, John, 47, 99, 353. 
Binney, Horace, 12. 
Bird, Doctor, 141. 
Bismarck, Prince, 370. 
Bodleian Library, 207. 
Boker, George H., 259, 353, 358, 

360, 361. 
Boteler, Lord, 246. 
Booksellers' Dinner, 411. 
Booth, Edwin, 339. 
Boston Recorder, 316. 
Botta, Mrs. V., 431. 
Boyle, F. L., 114. 
Bradford Club, 301. 
Bradstreet, Anne, 181, 186. 
Bradstreet, Governor, 186. 



436 



INDEX. 



Brainard, Charles H., 392, 398. 

Brevoort, Henry, 156, 377. 

Briggs, Charles J., 430. 

Bright, John, 344. 

Brighton Pier, 371. 

Bristed, Charles Astor, 430. 

British Authors, 149. 

British Criticism, 149. 

Broadway Journal, 336. 

Brooks, James G., Sketch of, 402; 
mentioned, 131, 378. 

Brooks, Mrs. Mary C, 131. 

Brougham, Lord, 12, 228. 

Brown, Charles Brockden, 433. 

Browne^Sir Thomas, 359. 

Bruce, Doctor, 283. 

Bryant, Arthur, 16, 26. 

Bryant, Austin, 16 

Bryant, Cyrus, 16. 

Bryant, Dan, 106. 

Bryant Homestead, 14, 16, 77, 78. 

Bryant, Ichabod, 15. 

Bryant, John H., 16, 103, 384. 

Bryant, Julia S., 116, 212 

Bryant, Mrs. W. C, 40, 212. 

Bryant, Peter, 16, 17, 18, 38. 

Bryant, Philip, 15. 

Bryant, Ruth, 18. 

Bryant, Stephen, 15. 

Bryant, William Cullen, Biog- 
raphy of, II to 127 ; mentioned, 
157, 181, t88, 192, 193, 195, 196, 

200, 206, 207, 208, 212, 221, 222, 
223, 224, 229, 238, 239, 240, 257, 
239, 260, 340, 344, 384, 402, 407, 

432> 433. 434- 
Buccaneer, The, 191, 194, 197, 207. 
Burgoyne's Surrender, 415. 
Bull, John, 140, 152. 
Bulwer, E. L., 365. 
Burns, Robert, 151, 254, 339. 
Burroughs, John, 433. 
Burton's Magazine, 336. 
Butler, William Allen, 259, 260, 

419, 431. 
Byron, Lord, 34, 106, 179, 254, 370, 

402. 

Calhoun, John C, 151. 
Campbell, Thomas, 152. 
Canova's Napoleon, 153. 
Carlyle, Thomas, 43, 44, 226, 365. 
Catalogue Fraser, 96. 
Catherine of Russia, 183. 
Causeries du Lundi, 98. 
Cave, the Bookseller, 343. 
Cedarcroft, 358, 362. 
Cedarmere, Roslyn, 75, 76. 
Centennial Ode, 72. 



Central Park, 53, 61, 87, 90, 108, 

IIS, 258, 339, 358. 
Century Club, 13, 56, 58, 88, 386, 

400. 
Channing, Prof. E. T., 187, 189, 

205. 
Channing, Francis Dana, 185. 
Channing, Walter, 184, 181;. 
Channing, Dr. W. E., 184, 187, 

195, 214, 223. 
Chapman's Homer, 61. 
Chapman, John G., 97, 400. 
Charles the Twelfth, 331. 
Chase, Chief Justice, 381. 
Chesterfield, Lord, 99, 176. 
Chicago, 153, 155. 
Christian Intelligencer, 68. 
Church, Frederick S., 58. 
Church Record, 420. 
Cincinnati, Order of, 383, 386. 
Clark, Louis Gay lord, 412, 429. 
Clark, Willie Gaylord, 46, 429. 
Clarke, McDonald, Sketch of, 

398-399 ; mentioned, 337. 
Clay, Henry, 93, 151. 
Clemm, Virginia, 336. 
Clinch, Charles P., Sketch of, 

394-397; mentioned, 121, 122, 287. 
Cobden, Richard, 277. 
Cockburn, Admiral, 137. 
Cockloft Hall, 85, 156, 377, 386. 
Cogswell, Dr. Jonathan, 185. 
Cogswell, Joseph G., 185, 278. 
Cole, Thomas, 61, 97, 400. 
Coleman, William, 47,87,297,298, 

303, 397, 429- 

Colenso, Bishop, 271. 

Coleridge, Chief Justice, 59. 

Coleridge, S. T., 59, 189, 194, 195, 
214, 224, 225, 391. 

Coleridge's Inkstand, 63. 

Columbia College, 388, 412, 413, 
417, 420. 

Columbus, Bust of, 153. 

Columbus, The Vision of, 228. 

Columbian Magazine, 408. 

Commercial Advertiser, 400, 40S. 

Continental Congress, 183. 

Copyright Congress, 422. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, Biog- 
raphy of, 230-244; mentioned, 
45, 61, 130, 148, 190, 230, 292, 339, 
341, 367, 376, 378, 432, 433, 434. 

Cooper, Paul, 231. 

Cooper, Susan Fenimore, 231, 429. 

Cooper, Thomas A., 251. 

Cooper, Mrs. T. A., 265. 

Corcoran Gallery, 302. 

Corcoran, W. W., 391. 



INDEX. 



437 



Corsair, The, 322, 323. 
Courier and Enquirer, 428. 
CozzENs, Frederick S., Sketch 

of, 421-4.24; mentioned, 301, 

389, 421, 422, 423. 
Creighton, Rev. Dr., 216. 
Critic, The, 343, 433. 
Croakers, The, 47, 139, 252, 300, 

301, 302, 397. 
Crovvell, Naomi, 181. 
Cullen, Dr. William, 19 
Cullum, Gen. G. W., 335. 
Curtis, George William, 58, 358, 

416, 428. 

Dana, David, 183. 

Dana, Francis, 182, 183. 

Dana Hill, 182. 

Dana, Prof. J. A., 70. 

Dana, Richard, 182, 216. 

Dana, Mrs. R. H., 188, 227. 

Dana, Richard Henry, biography 
of, 179-229; mentioned, 12, 34, 
37^ 38, S3, 6s, 93, 94, 104, 107, iii, 
159, 238, 399. 402. 418, 431. 

Dana, R. H., Jr., 56, 107. 

Dana, William, 181. 

Darley, F. O. C, 58, 422 

Davies, Judge Henry E., 132. 

Davis, Andrew Jackson, 131. 

Davis, Charles A., 276. 

Davis, Jefferson, 143, 270. 

Davis, Judge Noah, 178. 

Davis, Matthew L., 412. 

Dawes, Daniel, 14. 

Defence of Poetry, 58. 

Dehon, Rev. Theodore, 221. 

DeKay, Dr. James E., 283, 297, 
303, 304, 305, 306, 395. 

Delancey, Bishop, 231. 

Delancey, Miss S. A., 231. 

Democratic Review, 153, 342, 420. 

Dennie, Joseph, 433. 

Derby, Earl of, 61 

Desborow, Chancellor, 247, 248. 

Dewey, Dr. Orville, 33, loi, 105, 
400, 412. 

Dickens, Charles, 431. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, 370, 415, 434. 

Don Quixote, 341. 

Drake, Caroline, 282. 

Drake, Jonathan, 280. 

Drake, Louise, 282. 

Drake and Langstaff, 288, 289, 
290. 

Drake, John, 280. 

Drake, Mrs. J. R., 304. 

Drake, Joseph Rodman, biog- 
raphy of, 280-311; mentioned. 



47. 131. 273, 280, 341, 376, 395, 

396, 397. 432- 
Drake, Sir Francis, 280. 
Dryburgh Abbey, 177. 
Dryden, John, 61, 65, 107, 398. 
Dudley, Governor, 181, 186. 
Duflerin, Earl of, 82. 
Duggan, Paul, 114. 
Dunlap, William, 45, 190, 429. 
Durand, A, B., 45, 58, 97, 114, 400. 
Durfee, Dr. Calvin, 28. 
Dutchess County, N. Y., 130, 131, 

414. 
Dutchman's Fireside, The, 129, 

141, 152. 
DuvcKiNCK, Evert A., Sketch of, 

417-419; mentioned, 63, 135, 149, 

209, 222, 223, 259, 260, 349, 417. 
Duyckinck, George L., 418. 

Eagle's Head, 219. 
Eastburn, J. W., 399. 
Eckford, Henry, 284, 287, 289. 
Edinburgh Review, 230, 273. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 280. 
Eliot, Andrew, 250, 251. 
Eliot, Rev. John, 15, 247, 249. 
Ellery, Elizabeth, 182. 
Ellery, William, 182, 186. 
Elliott, Charles L., 114, 422. 
Ellison, Rev. J., 231. 
Embargo, The, 34, 35. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 56, 169, 

199, 344, 432. 434- 
Emott, James, 130. 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 431. 
Erckmann-Chatrian, 384. 
Evarts, William M., 56, 259. 
Everett, Edward, 56, 97, 155, 275. 
Evening Mail, 288. 
Evening Mirror, 323, 403. 
Evening Post, 46, 47, 48, 55, 87, 88, 

97, 139, 252, 288, 291, 297, 300, 

397. 407. 

Fairchild, Frances, 39, 40. 
Fairlie, Major, 100. 
Fairlie, The Misses, 100. 
Flood of Years, The, 72, 113. 
Fame, 102, 106. 
Fanny, Halleck's, 139. 
Farewell, The, 94. 
Fay, Theodore S., 323, 353, 430.' 
Favorite Poems, 104, 105. 
Felton, Prof. C. C, loi. 
Fenimore, Elizabeth, 230. 
Fenno, Mary Eliza, 386. 
Fenwick, George, 246. 
Fenv/ick, Governor, 246. 



438 



INDEX. 



Fillmore, Millard, 02, 93. 
Fowler, Prof. W. C., 395. 
Francis, Dr. John Wakefield, 

Sketch of, 388-389; mentioned, 

igi, 412, 423. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 315. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 92, 93. 
Fuller, Thomas, 68, 356. 
Fuller, Hiram, 403. 

Gallatin, Albert, 412. 
Galitzin, Prince, 236. 
Garcia, Felicia, 396. 
Garfield, James A., 12. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 70. 
Gay, Sidney Howard, 63. 
Georgetown College, 407. 
Genius, Errors of, 339. 
Germany, Emperor of, 370. 
Gifford, Sanford R., 58. 
Glenmary, 319, 333. 
Godwin, Parke, 47 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 53, 135, 343. 
Goethe Club, 92, 359. 
Goethe, J. W. von, 12, 62, 349, 359, 

367. 369, 374- 
Goodrich, S. C, 317. 
Graham's Magazine, 336, 342, 348. 
Grant, Mrs. Anne, 141. 
Grant, Gen. U. S., 85, 179, 208. 
Gray, Henry Peters, 114. 
Gray, Dr. John F., 116. 
Greeley, Horace, 429. 
Greenough, Horatio, 235. 
Greenwood Cemetery, 156. 
Grinnell, Cornelia, 324. 
Grinnell, Henry, 324. 
Grinnell, Joseph, 324. 
Grinnell, Moses H., 315, 324. 
Griswold, Bishop, 188. 
Griswold, Dr. R. W., 181, 185, 188, 

20s, 212, 333, 340, 429. 

Halak, Mount, 249. 
Hall, Judge, 141. 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, Biogra- 
phy of, 245-279 ; mentioned, 15 

37, 45, 47, 50, 56, 61, 86, 87, 88 
90, 95, 100, 105, T12, 131, 136, 139 
144, 181, 190, 19s, 204, 205, 207, 
208, 223, 224, 229, 233, 234, 23s 
237j 245. 283, 285, 292, 293, 294, 
295, 296, 297, 300, 301, 302, 306, 
310, 311, 314, 336, 337, 339, 340, 
341. 347. 349. 357. 358. 361, 364 
376, 378, 388, 392, 396. 397. 398 
402, 412, 416, 419, 423, 431, 432, 

433- 
Halleck, Maria, 256, 283, 300. 



Halleck, Mary Eliot, 248. 
Halleck Monument, 87, 361. 
Halleck Statue, 87, 91, 112, 115. 
Halleck Statue Committee, 89. 
Hallock, Gerard, 430.'' 
Hallock, Moses, 26, 27, 29. 
Hallock, Peter, 249. 
Hallock, William A., 29, 31, 430. 
Halsey, Rev. Herman, 33. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 100, 385. 
Harper's Magazine, 106, 288, 351, 

427. 
Harper & Brothers, 50, 200. 
Harper, Robert Goodloe, 187, 

188. 
Harte, Bret, 340, 344, 353. 
Harvard University, 37, 182, 185, 

217. 
Hastings, Flora, 212. 
Hathaway's Cottage, 362. 
Hawks, Francis, L., 420. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 327, 344, 

^353. 432. 434- 

Hay, John, 353, 368. 

Hayes, Rutherford B , 115, 259, 

353. 358, 373- 
Hazlitt, William, 421. 
Headley, Rev. J. T., 430. 
Henry, Dr. C. S., 198, 199, 210, 

218, 429. 
Henry, Prof. Joseph, 12. 
Herbert, Francis, 385. 
Herbert, William Henry, 429. 
Hicks, Thomas, 114, 357, 422. 
Higginson, Rev. John, 246, 247. 
Hillhouse, James A., Sketch of, 

387-388 ; mentioned, 45, 231. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 70, 95, 

195, 206, 207, 208, 226, 257, 354, 
^359. 432. 

Hockselter, F. von, 358. 
Hodge, Prof. Charles, 12, 429. 
Hoffman, Charles Fenno, 

Sketch of, 409-413 ; mentioned, 

366, 376, 386, 409. 
Hoffman, Matilda, 386. 
Hoffman, Ogden, 409. 
Holland House, 99, 328. 
Holland, Lady, 328. 
Holland, Sir Henry, 12, 206, 207, 

208. 
Home Journal, 324, 326, 403. 
Homer, 61, 62, 96, 102, i^, 139. 
Home, Sweet Home, 390, 391. 
Hood, Thomas, 66, 337. 
Hopkins, Dr. Mark, 11. 
Horn, Charles E , 403. 
Home, Richard H., 370. 
Hosack, Dr. David, 146, 429. 



INDEX. 



439 



Houghton, Lord, 112. 
House of Commons, 406. 
Howard, Daniel, 18. 
Howard, Dr. Abiel, 15, 18. 
Howard Family, 15. 
Howe, Judge, 39. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 57. 
Howells, William D., 70, 353. 
Hudson River, 138, 145, 146, 157. 
Hugo, Victor, 14, 257, 368. 
Hull, Com. Isaac, 138, 143. 
Humboldt, Alex, von, 12, 228,356, 

360. 

Hunt, Leigh, 421. 

Hunt's Point, 278, 288, 289, 292, 

305, 306, 421. 
Hunnewell Farm, 181. 
Huntington Bishop, 105. 
Huntington, Daniel, 58. 
Hyde Park, N. Y,, 148, 149. 

Idle Man, The, 189, 190, 197, 200, 
206. 

Idlewild, 315, 324, 326, 333. 

Inchiquin s Letters, 138. 

Ingersoll, Charles J., 138. 

Ingram, John H., 340, 400. 

Inman, Henry, 45, ij^, 384, 400. 

Inman, John, Sketch of, 408-9; 
mentioned, 384-400. 

International Copyright, 69, 149. 

Irving, Ebenezer, 156. 

Irving Hotel, 159. 

Irving, Peter, 157. 

Irving, Pierre M., 159. 

Irving, Washington, Biography 
of, 157-178; mentioned, 50, 61, 
8s, 100, 114, 119, 130, 134, 13s, 
15s, 156, 232, 237, 238, 26s, 315, 
339, 341; 3S3> 37^, 377. 378. 386, 
390, 391, 412, 413, 419, 424, 432, 
433, 434- 

Irving, William, 134, 156, 158, 377. 

Jackson, Andrew, 276. 
Jackson, Edward, 181. 
Jay, John, 420. 
Johnson, Eastman, 58. 
Johnson, Samuel, 12, 49, 343, 374. 
Johnson, Sir William, 393. 
Jones, David S., 420. 
Jones, William Alfred, Sketch 

of, 419-421; mentioned, 185. 
Jonson, Ben, 55, 339. 
Journal of Commerce, 83. 
Junius Letters, 252. 

Karr, Alphonse, 103. 
Keats, John, 72, 179, 370. 



Keith, Rev. James, 15. 

Kemble, Gouverneur, 156, 386, 387. 

Kennedy, John P., 280, 315, 335, 

417. 
Kennett Square, 362, 363. 
Kent, James, 45, 130, 412, 430. 
Kimball, Richard B., 430. 
King Charles, 45, 411, 412, 429. 
Kinzie, Mrs. John H., 154, 155. 
Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., 

sketch of, 401-402; mentioned, 

141. 
Kirkland, William, 401. 
Kirkpatrick, Chief Justice, 205. 
Knickerbocker Literature, 

Sketch of, 376-434. 
Knickerbocker Magazine, 104, 

237, 342, 4^-, 421- 
Knickerbocker's New York, 158. 
Koningsmarke, 140. 

Lablache, 357. 

Laconic Correspondence, 144. 

Lafayette, Marquis, 385. 

Lamb, Charles, 218, 256, 391. 

Lamb, Mary, 256. 

Land of Dreams, The, 105. 

Landor, Walter Savage, 330, 409, 

428. 
Langstaflf, Launcelot, 153. 
Langstaff, William, 288, 289, 291, 

297, 300, 303, 304, 397. 
Larcom, Miss Lucy, 277. 
Lawrence, Effingham, 281. 
Lawrence, Hannah, 281. 
Lawrence, Samuel, 114. 
Lawson, James, 407, 430. 
Le Clear, Thomas, 114. 
Lee, Nathaniel, 339, 398. 
Leete, Rev. William, 247. 
Leggett, William, Sketch of, 

406-408; mentioned, 47, 400,402. 
Leisler, Gov. Jacob, 377. 
Leno.x, James, 131. 
Lenox Library, 131. 
Leslie, Charles Robert, 224. 
Letters of a Traveller, 55. 
Leupp, Charles M., 400. 
Lewis, Gov. Morgan, 131. 
Lieber, Dr. Francis, 429. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 362, 426. 
Literary Partnerships, 238. 
Literary Regiment, 310. 
Literary World, The, 222, 375,418, 

420. 
Lockhart, John Gibson, 118, 318. 
London Literary Gazette, 46. 
London Spectator, 67, 97, 135, 340, 

426. 



440 



INDEX. 



London Times, 62. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 
56, 57, 62, 63, 69, 105, 178, 200, 
207, 219, 225, 227, 232, 238, 257, 
33°! 343. 344. 349. 354. 4iS. 43', 
432. 434- 

Longstreet, Judge, 141. 

Longwood Cemetery, 360. 

Longworth, David, 134. 

Longworth s Directory, 291. 

Lord, Daniel, 420. 

Lossing, Benson J., 131. 

Lounsberry, Prof. T. R., 243. 

Lowell, James Russell, 56, 159, 
219. 295. 340. 344, 353, 415, 432- 

Lunt, George, 318. 

Lyman, Rev. Orange, 32. 

Lyndhurst, Lord, 12. 

Lyltleton, Lord, 49. 

Macaulay, Lord, 329, 341, 388. 
Mackenzie, R. S., 430. 
Mackenzie, Slidell, 430. 
MacLane, Louis, 174. 
MacLellan, Isaac, 431. 
Madison, James, 138. 
Magdalen College, 207, 
Mallory's Hotel, 379. 
Manhattan Island, 158. 
Maple Sugar Making, 23. 
Marco Bozzaris, 37, 113, 193, 194, 

366. 
Mariner, The Ancient, 194. 
Mario, 357. 

Marryat, Captain, 318. 
Marsh, George P., 353, 379. 
Marshall, Chief Justice, 213. 
Martin, Charles, 114. 
Mass. Hist. Society, 246. 
Mathews, Dr. William, 98. 
Matthews, Cornelius, 418. 
Mayflower, The, 15. 
Mayo, Dr. William S., 430. 
Mazzini, Giuseppi, 108, 117. 
Melbourne, Lord, 329. 
Melville, Herman, 430. 
Mepham, Rev. John, 247. 
Metropolitan Museum, 71, 337. 
Milton, John, 103, 330, 342. 
Mitchell, Donald G., 178. 
Mitchell, Dr. Samuel T., 429. 
Mitford, Miss, 176. 
Moltke, Field-marshal, 12. 
Monthly Anthology, 35. 
Montaigne, 415. 
Monterey, Poem of, 410. 
Montgomery, Gen. Richard, 131. 
Moore, Thomas, 205, 254, 331. 
Morning Chronicle, 134, 157. 



Morris, George P., Sketch of, 
403-406; mentioned, 317,323, 349, 
376, 378, 379, 409, 412. 

Morse, Prof. S. F. B.,89, 114, 131, 
190, 209, 223, 400. 

Morse Statue, 61, 113, 114. 

Motley, J. Lothrop, 211, 353. 

Mount Auburn, 314. 

Mowatt, Anna Cora, 429. 

Murray, Sir Charles A., 237. 

Napoleon, 109, 152, 270. 

Napoleon, Louis, 273. 

Navy Agent, 143. 

Navy Commissioners, 138. 

Navy Department, 143, 144, 145. 

Nelson, Lord, 270. 

New England Magazine, 201. 

Newman's Homer, 61. 

Newtown Four Corners, 181. 

New York, 136, 158. 

New York American, 411. 

New York Churchman, 420. 

New York Historical Society, 85, 

87, 387. 
New York Mirror, 378. 
New York Review, 192. 
New York Times, 99. 
Nichols, Judge, 304. 
Nine Partners, N. Y., 130, 131. 
Nineteenth Century, 339. 
Noah, Major M. M., 429. 
North American Review, 36, 41, 

189, 205, 214, 351. 
North, Christopher, vide John 

Wilson. 

Oak Hill Cemetery, 392. 
Oakley, Thomas J., 130. 
O'Brien, Fitz James, 345. 
O'Conor, Charles, 278. 
Odes of Horace, 32. 
Odyssey, Homer's, 61, 62. 
Ogden, Catherine, 133. 
Ogden, Henry, 156. 
Ohio, Ship of the" Line, 143. 
Old Dominion, 141, 142. 
Oldstyle, Jonathan, 157. 
OsBORN, Laughton, Sketch of, 

413-414. 
Ostermann, Count, 183. 
Otis, Mrs. H. G., 318. 
Otsego Hall, 242. * 
Owen, Robert, 140. 
Oxford Professor, 102. 

Packard, Eliphalet, 14. 
Packard Family, 15. 
Paine, Thomas, 271. 



INDEX. 



441 



Painted Cup, The, 103. 

Palmer, Dr. Ray, 430. 

Palmerston, Lord, 12. 

Park Commissioners, 90, 114. 

Parkman, Dr., 395. 

Park Theatre, 236, 251, 390. 

Park Theatre Addresses, 395. 

Parsons, Theophilus, 63. 

Past, The, 104. 

Paulding Family, 133. 

Paulding, James Kirke, Biog- 
raphy of, 129-156; mentioned, 
50, 8s, 158, 341, 376, 377, 400, 
412, 433. 

Paulding, John, 132. 

Paulding, William, 132. 

Paulding, William Irving, 147, 
152. 

Pawlonia Imperialis, 113. 

Payne, John Howard, Sketch of, 
389-393: mentioned, 244. 

Peale's Washingtor), 153. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 103. 

Percival, J. G., 45, 46, 190, 223, 280, 
402. 

Pfere la Chaise, 386. 

Phillips, Wendell, 211. 

Pierpont, Rev. James, 380. 

PiERPONT, Rev. John, Sketch of, 
380-382; mentioned, 378, 402. 

Pilgrims, The, 15, 195. 

Pinckney, Charles C, 185-385. 

Pinckney,Edward C, 378. 

Planting of the Apple-tree, 51, 
86, 105. 

Poe, David, 334. 

PoE, Edgar Allan, Biography 
of, 334-346: mentioned, 197, 244, 

3321 349. 307. 412, 413. 432, 434- 
Poe, Elizabeth, 334. 
Poe, Mrs. Edgar A., 338. 
Poet's Corner, 339, 340. 
Poet's Mound, 399. 
Pond, Enoch, 195. 
Pope, Alexander, 34, 61, 99, 342. 
Popular Songs, 404. 
Porter, Com. David, 138, 377. 
Porter, Col. Peter A., 422. 
Porter, William T., 322. 
Port Royal, 98. 
Potter, Bishop Alonzo, 213. 
Potter, The Bishops, 130. 
Poughkeepsie, 145, 146, 153, 215. 
Poughkeepsie Academy, 411. 
Praed, Winthrop M., 66. 
Prentice, George D., 253. 
Prescott, William H., 75, 432, 434. 
Primes, The, 430. 
Puritan and his Daughter, 147,148. 



Putnam, George P., 363. 
Putnam's Magazine, 342. 

Quarterly Observer, 200. 
Quarterly Review, 137. 
Quincy, Josiah, loi, 228. 

Randolph, John, 252. 
Raven, The, 336, 337, 340, 343. 
Raven, The Dying, 193. 
Raymond, Henry J., 428, 430. 
Raymond, President J. H., 132. 
Read, Buchanan, 57. 
Recorder, The, 83, 388. 
Red Jacket, 234, 293. 
Redwood Library, 417. 
Reform Bill, 214. 
Religious Life, The, 125. 
Remington, Jonathan, 186. 
Rhode Island Regiment, 100. 
Ripley, George, 199, 349, 375, 430. 
Rives, William C, 317. 
Rivulet, The, 104. 
Robinson, Dr. Edward, 138, 429. 
Rodgers, Com. John, 138. 
Rogers, Samuel, 55, 228, 329, 421. 
Romayne, Dr., 283, 285. 
Rotten-cabbage Rebellion, 184 
Rowan, Vice- Admiral, 359. 
Ruggles, Samuel B., 387. 
Rush, Mrs., 431. 
Ruskin, John, 273. 
Russell, Colonel, 285. 
Russell, Henry, 404. 
Russell, Lord John, 12, loi, 273. 
Russian Archives, 183. 
Rydal, Mount, 224. 
Rynders, Captain, 270. 

Saadi, the Persian, 228. 
Sachem's Head, 387. 
Sainte-Beuve, 98, 108. 
Salmagundi, 134, 135, 139, 376, 377. 
Sands, Miss Julia, 97, 400. 
Sands, Robert Charles, Sketch 

of, 399-401; mentioned, 49, 384. 
Sangamon River, 104. 
Sarony, Napoleon, 114. 
Saturday Review, 34, 207. 
Saxe-Weimar, Duke of, 369. 
Schiller, 369. 
Schliemann, Dr., 368. 
Scott, Gen. Winfteld, 386. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 11, 53, 118, 137, 

176, 224, 234, 23s, 370, 418. 
Scott Statue, 61. 
Scribner's Monthly, 351. 
Scudder, Horace E., 372. 
Seabury, Rev. Dr., 420. 



442 



INDEX. 



Sedgwick, Catherine M., 39, 50, 

56, 141, 210, 400. 
Sedgwick, Charles F., 28, 31, 34. 
Sedgwick Family, 43. 
Sedgwick, Henry D., 45, 46. 
Sedgwick, Robert, 45. 
Sedgwick, Theodore, Jr., 407. 
Seward, William H., 426. 
Seymour, Horatio, 416. 
Seymour, Rev. H., 27. 
Shakespeare, William, 11, 63, 181, 

202, 230, 385. 
Shakespeare's Grave, 119. 
Shakespeare's Statue, 61. 
Shakespeare's Will, 425. 
Sharpe, Colonel, 411. 
Sheafe, Rev. Jacob, 247. 
Shelley, Percy B., 58, 179,253, 370. 
Sheridan, Richard B., 97. 
Sherman, Gen. W. T., 359. 
Sherwood, Mrs. John, 56. 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 179, 181, 295, 

303. 
Sieyes, Abbe, 179. 
Sigourney, Mrs. L. H., 58. 
Simms, William Gilmore, 105, 149, 

244, 260, 261, 420. 
Sketch Club, 97, 399, 400. 
Slavery in the U. S., 143. 
Sleepy Hollow, 176, 177. 
Smith, Adam, 77. 
Smith, Rev. Sidney, 236, 418. 
Snell, Rev. Thomas, 26, 27. 
Somers, Chancellor, 98 
Somerset House, 425. 
Song-writers of America, 403. 
Southern Literary Messenger, 335. 
Souihey, Robert, 118, 225, 370. 
Spenser, Edmund, 181. 
Spiritual Rappings, 213. 
Sprague, Charles, 96, 378, 382, 395, 

402. 
Stace, Gen. William, 317, 319. 
Stace, Mary L., 317. 
Stedman, Edmund C, 65, 67, 428. 
Stephens, John L., 42^. 
Stephens, Mrs. Ann S. 429. 
Stewart, Alexander T., 394. 
Stewart, Col. Warren, 86. 
Stoddard, Richard Henry, 340, 

341, 431. 
St. Mark's Church, 285, 428. 
St. Nicholas Hotel, loi. 
Stone, William L., Sketch of, 

393-394 ; mentioned, 190, 407, 

408, 412. 
Story, Judge, 348. 
Stowe, Mrs. Beecher, 70. 
Strakosch, Maurice, 357. 



Stratford-on-Avon, 177, 230. 
Street, Alfred B., Sketch of, 

414-416; mentioned, 57, 105, 131, 

432- 
Stuyvesant, Mrs. P., 285, 286. 
Sullivan, Algernon S., 339. 
Swift, Dean, n, 176, 342. 

Talisman, The, 399. 

Tallmadge, James, 131. 

Talma, 391. 

Tammany Society, 385. 

Tatler, The, 135. 

Taylor, Bayard, Biography of, 

347-375; mentioned, 57, 62, 195, 
^257,415. 

Taylor, Frederick, 360. 
Taylor, Jeremy, 68. 
Taylor, Joseph, 360. 
Taylor, Mrs. Bayard, 372. 
Taylor, Rebecca, 360. 
Taylor, Sir Henry, 342, 427, 
Taylor, Zachary, 92, 93. 
Tennyson, Lord, 30, 226. 
Thackeray, W. M., 362, 422. 
Thanatopsis, 36-38, 41, 103, 113, 

187, 188, 193, 194. 
Thirlwall, Bishop, 34. 
Thornburn, Grant, 430. 
Thoreau, Henry, 415, 416. 
Thorpe, T. B., 141. 
Thompson, C. G., 114. 
Thompson, James, 49. 
Thompson, Dr. J. P., 353. 
Thompson, Launt, 114, 122. 
Thorwaldsen, 96. 
Tillou, Francis R., 305. 
Tillou, C. Graham, 302. 
Titian, 12, 228. 
To a Water-fowl, 105. 
Tombigbee River, 144. 
Tomes, Dr. Robert, 430. 
Toombs, Robert, 143. 
Trelawney, Capt., 370. 
Tremont Temple, 354. 
Tribune, New York, 349, 351. 
Trinity Church, 383. 
Trowbridge, Edmund, 186. 
Trowbridge, Lydia, 182. 
Trumbull, Colonel, 412. 
TucKERMAN, Henry T., Sketch 

of, 416-417; mentioned, 57, 191. 
Tupper, Martin F., 112. 
Turner, Sharon, 187. 
Two Years before the Mast, 107, 

185. 

Union Magazine, 401. 

U. S. Literary Gazette, 43, 63. 



INDEX. 



443 



Van Buren's Cabinet. 143. 

Van Buren, John, 226, 270, 

Van Buren, Martin, 154, 174. 

VandenhofE, George, 381. 

Van de Weyer, M., 329. 

Vassar College, 132. 

Vassar, John Guy, 130. 

Vassar, Matthew, 132. 

Vernon, Mrs., 408. 

Verplanck, Gulian C, Sketch 
of, 383-387; mentioned, 13, 45, 
49, 60, 131, 136, 190, 202, 223, 313, 
376, 378, 3831 3871 399. 4001 422, 
4231 433- 

Vicksburg, Siege of, 85, 366. 

Vinton, Dr. Alexander, 213. 

Virgil Cactus, The, 89. 

Wainwright, Bishop, 431. 
Waldeck, Count, 228. 
Wallace, John Bradford, 216. 
Ward, Samuel, 263. 
Warner, Alice B., 429. 
Warner, Susan, 429. 
Washburn Family, 14. 
Washington, George, 100, 143, 182, 

159. 38s, 428. 
Waterston, Rev. Robert C, 14. 
Webb, James Watson, 430. 
Webster, Daniel, 92, 93, 151, 242, 

395. 
Webster, Noah, 395. 
Weed, Thurlow, 430. 
Weimar Library, 369. 
Weir, Prof. R. W., 17, 400. 
Wellington, Duke of, 236, 409. 
Wesley, Charles, 102. 
Wenzler, A. H., 114. 
Westchester Co., N. Y., 132, 133. 
Westfield River, 80. 
Wheaton, Henry, 323, 353, 403. 
Whig Review, 342. 



Whipple, Edwin P., 217, 415. 
White, Richard Grant, Sketch 

of, 424-429. 
Whitfield, Rev. Henry, 245, 247. 
Whitman, Mrs., 340. 
Whitman, Walter, 431. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 46, 56, 

S7. i°S, 207, 238, 257, 259, 341, 

344. 349, 432. 
Wiley, Charles, 190. 
Wilkes, Charles, 231. 
Williams College, 28, 29, 30, 37, 59, 

60, 341, 430. 
Willis, George, 315. 
Willis, Nathaniel, 315. 
Willis, Nathaniel Parker, Biog- 
raphy of, 312-333; mentioned, 

56, 293, 312, 315, 349, 376, 403. 
Wilson, James Grant, 51, 52, 150, 

222, 257, 260, 263, 359, 386, 416. 
Wilson, Miss M. K., 113. 
Wilson, Mrs. J. G., 89, 91, 205. 
Wilson, Prof. John, 38, 50, 118, 

igo, 194, 260, 413. 
Wilson, William, 104, 131, 146, 147, 

ISO, 237, 341, 386, 430. 
Wine- press, 421. 
Winter, William, 339. 
Winthrop, Benjamin R.. 299, 397. 
Winthrop, Edgerton, 285. 
Winthrop, Robert C, 105. 
Wood, Joseph, 153. 
Woodberry, George E., 340 
Woodworth, Samuel, Sketch of, 

377-380; mentioned, 402, 403. 
Wordsworth, William, 51, 55, 96, 

189, 194, 224, 428. 
Wright, Fanny, 236. 

Yale College, 29, 31, 37, 39, 231, 316, 

380. 
Yosemite Valley, 206. 



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